What I Saw at the Gosnell Trial

An Evening with JD Mullane

JD Mullane speaks to a packed house at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Doylestown, PA

By Charol Abrams and Pat Dowling

In the Fifth Century, St. Augustine noted that “The times are bad! The times are troublesome!” Every century has been afflicted by satan’s evil, but St. Augustine could also certainly be describing the evil experienced today in our nation and our world.

This past Monday evening (10/15), JD Mullane, a columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, and the Burlington County (NJ) Times, spoke to a packed hall at the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown, PA about his experiences at the trial last Spring (2013) for Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted in May, 2013, of three murder charges, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.

Mr. Mullane told us that he usually covers only stories that are local for his newspaper readers, so his coverage of the Gosnell trial began somewhat unintentionally with a light schedule one day back in April when Mullane decided to attend the trial in center-city Philadelphia. He was looking for a local angle, because some of the women who sought Gosnell’s later-term abortions were from this area. JD called ahead to the Philadelphia courthouse for press credentials, but was told that he could just show up!

Somewhat mystified by this lack of competition for a press seat during a trial for horrific infanticide in Philadelphia, he was then surprised to see that almost all of the courtroom seats designated for the press were empty, and this absence included the Catholic press. JD then snapped a cell-phone photo of the empty seats and posted it on Twitter. The picture went viral, and only then did the media begin to pay a little more attention to this trial.

Mr. Mullane told the parish-hall audience that, as the testimony unfolded, it was bad enough to hear descriptions of the routine practices in Gosnell’s abortion mill, how filthy is always was, and how he discriminated against ethnic women by providing even worse than the standard “care” for them. Additional trial testimony and images were “beyond any Hollywood horror”, including the courtroom presence of one of the bloody chairs where women in late-term pregnancy waited for lethal doses of Gosnell’s drugs to kill their babies before “delivery” - and these drugs were sometimes injected by an untrained 15-yr-old girl!

Other grisly testimony included 1) descriptions of the horrendous techniques for murdering born-alive babies after delivery if they survived the toxic drug-brew and 2) gruesome answers to police questions posed for Gosnell’s staff. For example, a local detective testified that he asked the abortion staff why Gosnell would keep jars at home containing some remains from aborted babies. Staff members had replied that Gosnell owned a house at the Jersey shore and often used these babies’ remains to bait crab traps set in the nearby ocean waters!

(Many other documented Gosnell horrors are described at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Gosnell)

Since being convicted in May of this year, Gosnell has been interviewed by only one reporter, Steve Volk, from Philadelphia Magazine. http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/10/08/kermit-gosnell-trial-abortion/.  Mr. Mullane told us that he, too, has covered many murder trials and that, in his experience, all murderers have the same empty and evil look in their eyes. JD said that he would also like to interview Gosnell, see if he has that same look, and then definitely ask Gosnell one question: “Did Allyson Schwartz ever refer women to your facility for late-term abortions?”

We can only hope that JD might someday interview Gosnell and that he truthfully answers JD’s question! Ms. Schwartz is a potential candidate for governor in PA and has been very quiet about her involvement with Kermit Gosnell, as she thus far has been unwilling to answer this question, which has been posed to her on several occasions. Does her silence confirm her involvement?

Currently, Gosnell writes “poetry” in prison while “blaming” Catholics for “persecuting abortionists”! How ironic when he is thus far blind to the evil that he and other baby killers have flagrantly inflicted upon our society since 1973 as the lives of more than 55 million infants have been ended by the legalized murder that is abortion.

JD also mused before the audience about why our society so readily tolerates these and other abortion-related nightmares. When searching for the answers, it’s worth remembering that abortion is the contraception of last resort, so until people understand why contraception is wrong, we will never end abortion. We should also realize that until people understand their true dignity and the true meanings and purposes of our sexuality, we will never end contraception. Thus finding meaningful ways to immerse the culture in these truths – even just one person at a time - is essential to stop the Gosnells of this world. Society changed in ways that blindly legalized abortion, and by God’s grace, society can change by seeing and embracing related truths so that abortion (and contraception) will end.

Returning to St. Augustine’s Fifth-Century observation about evil, he continued it by reminding us that: “…we are our times. Let us live well and our times will be good. Such as we are, such are our times.” 

Let’s live well by learning about all levels of life-affirming truths related to our sexuality and then sharing these truths with everyone at every opportunity; here are a couple good places to start:

• http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0002.html
• http://www.hprweb.com/2013/01/john-paul-iis-triptych-of-the-human-person/

Let’s also live well by routinely accepting God’s mercy in Reconciliation for our own sins (regardless of how serious they might be) and encouraging others to do the same.

Only by learning and sharing will we shine light on the evil darkness of abortion mills everywhere and end the death that always occurs there whether the conditions in these mills are filthy or sterile and regardless of whether the abortion occurs at the beginning or end of pregnancy.

JD Mullane’s public commitment in words and pictures helps us to share these truths; we’re grateful for his work and its impact.