Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer
4 April 2013
by Michael J. McMonagle
The trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit
Gosnell for the deaths of seven infants and a Virginia woman presents huge
public-relations problems for the abortion industry. So, as expected, local
media coverage is minimal, particularly when compared with the ubiquitous
coverage of Msgr. William Lynn, who was convicted of child endangerment in last
year's clergy-abuse trial, and former state Sen. Vince Fumo, who was found guilty
of more than 130 charges.
Public relations aside, Gosnell's facility
existed for three reasons.
First, the vast culture of death in our
nation, enabled by rampant promiscuity and the resultant family breakdown,
encouraged women to disconnect children from sexual behavior. Therefore, an
unborn child was a "burden" to be eliminated, rather than a welcome
gift.
Second, Gosnell's "medical
practice" reflects the application of "pro-choice logic," which
asserts that an expectant mother has the "legal right" to determine
whether her child is delivered dead or alive. As a result, "snipping"
the spines of infants born alive, as Gosnell is accused of doing, was simply
fulfilling the desires of the expectant mothers seeking to be "treated"
for being pregnant.
Finally, the conditions at Gosnell's facility
existed because the state Health Department "decided, for political
reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all," according to the
grand jury report against Gosnell. Annual inspections stopped in the mid-1990s,
under Gov. Tom Ridge, and the policy continued under Gov. Ed Rendell, the
report said. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has been quoted as
saying there was "more oversight of women's hair salons and nail
salons" than over abortion facilities in the state.
Inspections have been increased under Gov.
Corbett. In addition, after a lengthy legislative struggle, in December 2011,
Corbett signed a new law requiring abortion facilities to meet the minimum
standards of "ambulatory surgical facilities" and be subject to at
least one unannounced inspection each year.
Despite the fact that the Health Department
has very liberally enforced this new law, it closed more than 40 percent (9 of
22) of Pennsylvania's abortion facilities in 2012. These closures demonstrate
that significant deficiencies existed at many other abortion facilities across
the commonwealth.
The enactment of new facilities regulations
renewed Pennsylvania's proud history of passing laws to reduce the number of
abortions in our state. These laws include Medicaid-funding restrictions,
informed consent, parental consent, and the 24-hour waiting period.
These laws and an active pro-life movement
have resulted in a decline in the number of abortions committed in our state,
from 65,777 in 1980 to 36,280 in 2011. Through an extensive network of
pregnancy centers, this movement serves tens of thousands of women in a crisis
pregnancy every year at no charge.
Abortion is never safe. Abortion results in
the death of a child and serious physical and psychological harms to the
mother. Thus, all abortion facilities share similarities with Gosnell's
facility. One major difference is that most of the children killed at other
facilities are younger than the victims Gosnell is accused of murdering.
Michael
J. McMonagle is the president of the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania. E-mail him at paprolifecoalition@gmail.com.
Quote from Mike McMonagle: “Gosnell's trial for eight counts of homicide and other lesser charges began on March 18, 2013. The secular news media has suppressed coverage of this trial because of its public relations problems for the abortion industry.
ReplyDeleteOn March 25, 2013 the Philadelphia Inquirer published an opinion column by pro-abortion leaders Kate Michelman and Carol Treacy which blamed Gosnell on pro-life activists (for our "protests" at other Philadelphia abortion chambers) and for our pro-life public policies, such as Medicaid funding restrictions.”
This is Mike’s opinion column which was published on April 4th.