Gosnell Movie Ignored in Abortionist’s Hometown, Philadelphia Journalist Says

“The big media were shamed into coming to Philly, though many, like the New York Times, bailed after a few days."

By Calvin Freiburger
Life Site New

Many who saw Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer this fall say it left them deeply affected, but the true story of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell had an uphill battle reaching many audiences in the first place – including in the city where his crimes took place.

Gosnell depicts the Philadelphia abortionist’s arrest, trial, and conviction for the first-degree murder of three born-alive babies and the involuntary manslaughter of patient Karnamaya Mongar. It’s based “very heavily on actual court transcripts,” “dozens of hours of interviews” with Gosnell himself, and the grand jury report.

The film highlights the shocking details of the original trial, such as Gosnell cutting the spinal cords of hundreds of newborns; witnesses describing infants who survived initial abortion attempts as “swimming” in toilets “to get out”; the feet of aborted babies stored in a freezer; and the mainstream media’s initial avoidance of the story.

At PJ Media this week, Philadelphia-based journalist Thom Nickels writes that the film has gone largely ignored, and isn’t even readily accessible within the city.

“The film was released on October 12 but not one Philadelphia-based movie theater had yet booked the film weeks later,” he says. “Where can Philadelphians go to see the film? To the far suburbs, of course, or into the hinterlands of New Jersey where there doesn’t seem to be film censorship.”

A Penn Live article from before the film’s release lists just three theaters where it could be seen: in Lancaster, Hanover, and Selinsgrove, all of which required more than an hour of travel to reach from Philadelphia. The film’s official site lists a dramatically reduced number of theaters showing the movie from when it was originally released, including none in Pennsylvania.

From the production process to its release, Gosnell has faced a litany of roadblocks. Every major Hollywood distributor rejected it, forcing producers to rely on crowdfunding. Judge Jeffrey Minehart, the case’s trial judge, tried to block the film with a defamation suit. NPR objectedto ads that referred to Gosnell as an “abortionist.” Planned Parenthood pressured at least one venue to cancel private screenings. Facebook rejected numerous ads for the film.

In October, co-producer Phelim McAleer and marketing director John Sullivan raised concerns about almost 200 theaters dropping the film without explanation, as well as reports of theater staffers actively discouraging and preventing customers from buying tickets. McAleer also faulted the New York Times for refusing to review the film and allegedly backing out of a prior agreement to run an ad for it.

Nickels also takes aim at a critical review of the film from Philadelphia Weekly, which primarily faults Gosnell for not capturing the look, sound, or feel of Philadelphia. The film, which was shot in Oklahoma, is “seriously lacking in local authenticity,” Stephen Silver writes.

“I don’t think the film’s producer Ann McElhinney or its screenwriter Andrew Klavan especially cared about location, but instead were adamant about getting a message across,” Nickels responds. “Who making or watching this movie would care if the Philly skyline is a copy-and-paste job or reel-to-reel authentic?”

Continue reading here 

Co-Producer of “Gosnell” Movie Skewers Pennsylvania Bureaucrats for Allowing Abortionist Free Rein

By Maria Gallagher, PA Pro-Life Federation
National Right to Life

A co-producer of the highly acclaimed “Gosnell” movie has some sharp words for the Pennsylvania bureaucrats who allowed the titular abortionist/serial killer to ply his grisly trade for decades. Ann McElhinney also outline the many obstacles the recently released film “Gosnell: the Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” is facing.

McElhinney appeared Thursday night in Harrisburg at the “Celebrate Life” Banquet benefiting the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Education Fund.

McElhinney noted that, despite the groundswell of grassroots support for the Gosnell film, “We’ve had every type of opposition and it isn’t over.” She said that many theaters “are dropping the film even though it’s making a lot of money.”  The social media titan Facebook rejected an astounding 50 ads showcasing the Gosnell film. “At every point in this we have had opposition. It has been relentless,” McElhinney said.

Still, McElhinney believes that telling the Gosnell story is vital to changing the culture and overall attitudes about abortion.

“I can tell you—It’s (the movie’s) saving lives,” McElhinney added.

She was brutally honest in telling attendees how officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Health failed in protecting women and babies from abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell is serving three consecutive life terms for murdering full-term babies after they were born. He was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of female immigrant patient Karnamaya Mongar.

McElhinney noted, accurately, “There are people in Pennsylvania who don’t know this story.” This, despite the fact that Gosnell is arguably America’s biggest serial killer, suspected of murdering hundreds of babies. Prosecutors could only bring charges in a handful of cases because Gosnell destroyed so many records.

A telling sign which hung in Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortion facility summarizes the story: “We got rid of the kids. The dog was allergic.”

Speaking of the staff of Gosnell’s abortion center, McElhinney quoted a detective who said of Gosnell’s pathetically undertrained staff, “You wouldn’t let the staff mow your lawn let alone give you medicine.”

In addition to hiring incompetent and grossly negligent staff, Gosnell assigned a 15-year-old girl to be his chief anesthesiologist. Interestingly enough, she took her job quite seriously, and no patients died under her watch. The same could not be said of the rest of the staff, who gave the fatal overdose of anesthetic to Mongar, according to McElhinney.

Website: National Right to Life

Why ‘Gosnell’ Movie Could Rock Hollywood Abortion Debate

The film tackles one of the most emotional subjects in our culture – abortion – with grace and care.

By Christian Toto
Newsbusters

Gosnell works on so many levels it’s hard to count them all.

The film tackles one of the most emotional subjects in our culture – abortion – with grace and care. The screenplay packs a specific point of view but leaves the soapbox storytelling off the frame. We’re gripped by a narrative that could chase away those with weak stomachs.

Even the film’s PG:13 rating is a victory of sorts given the horrors committed by the titular villain.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell ran a filthy abortion clinic where cats roamed the halls and babies’ feet floated in hidden jars. The specifics are straight out of a torture porn film, but the government agencies designed to oversee the clinic failed time and time again.

Detective James Wood (Dean Cain) wasn’t looking to uncover Dr. Gosnell’s atrocities. A routine drug investigation led him to his Philadelphia clinic.

The film moves quickly from there, offering clues that the clinic may be harboring something sinister. Detective Wood, along with the assistant DA (Sarah Jane Morris), start digging deeper into Dr. Gosnell’s practice.

They’re shocked at what they discover, but it’s far from an open and shut case. They’re cautioned against pushing their suspicions too far, too fast. Abortion remains a third rail issue, and throwing the book at a black abortionist could capsize their efforts.

Director Nick Searcy does double duty as Dr. Gosnell’s attorney, a brawler willing to use every advantage on his client’s behalf. Earl Billings delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as the embattled doctor. He’s coy and charismatic, an affable gent just trying to help his patients. It’s the story he’s told himself so often he believes it with all his heart.

His indifference is chilling. Billings’ portrait of evil is wildly original and understated.

Gosnell strains to be impartial, and by most accounts it succeeds. The main players even recite the mantra, “this is not about abortion” for pragmatic purposes. The prize is ending Dr. Gosnell’s house of horrors, not striking a blow for the pro-life movement.

Lead screenwriter Andrew Klavan has seen enough propaganda disguised as entertainment to steer clear of overt sloganeering.

Adding to the apolitical spirit of a film? One sequence name checks former Penn. Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and not in a flattering way.
A few moments flicker with partisan angst. The filmmakers tweak the media’s disgraceful absence from the story by showcasing the empty rows in the court house reserved for reporters. It’s a darkly comic moment, one given the appropriate close up.

Why?

Media malpractice is very much at the heart of the Dr. Gosnell scandal. Conservatives also will cheer a blogger who holds the truth higher than her preferred narratives.

Another scene unabashedly plugs into the pro-life cause. Janine Turner plays a veteran doctor describing what a “good” abortion looks like. She’s calm and dispassionate, offering details of a process many haven’t given much thought about before.

Gosnell may forever change that.

Newbusters article continues here

“Gosnell” Movie Reminds America Abortion Has Killed Over 60 Million Unborn Babies

By Cal Thomas
Life News

Arguably a contributing factor to the continuation of abortion is that it is performed out of sight and thus, out of many minds.

A film about one of the worst practitioners of abortion, Kermit Gosnell, opens October 12 in at least 600 theaters. Gosnell is the Philadelphia abortionist sentenced in 2013 to life in prison without parole for the murder of a baby born alive in a botched abortion.

The film is based on trial transcripts and police records. Here’s the background, as summarized on Wikipedia.org: 

“In 2011, Gosnell and various co-defendant employees were charged with eight counts of murder, 24 felony counts of performing illegal abortions beyond the state of Pennsylvania’s 24-week time limit, and 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.

The murder charges related to an adult patient, Karnamaya Mongar, who died following an abortion procedure, and seven newborns killed by having their spinal cords severed with scissors after being born alive during attempted abortions. 

In May 2013, Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and involuntary manslaughter in Mongar’s death. Gosnell was also convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. Gosnell waived his right to appeal in exchange for an agreement not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

The closest the film comes to depicting an abortion is when detectives raid Gosnell’s filthy clinic and discover dozens of jars filled with baby feet. It is enough to reach all but the hardest of hearts.

Earl Billings, the actor who plays Gosnell, depicts a cold and cynical man who seems to have insulated himself from what he has done, rationalizing that he is helping desperate women who can’t get late-term abortions elsewhere.

Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups are likely to brand the film propaganda, but what these organizations have long promoted to women — that they will find relief, their lives will be better and what they are discarding is not yet completely human — is the real propaganda.

In his book “Crusade in Europe,” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote about the Nazi death camps he visited at the end of World War II. He ordered photographers to take pictures of the dead bodies that had not yet been incinerated and the emaciated bodies of those still clinging to life. Eisenhower believed it important to record these scenes because he rightly feared there would be Holocaust deniers.

Here’s what he wrote: 

“The same day [April 12, 1945] I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain, however that I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock.”

Life News article continues here

One Reviewer Gives a Harrowingly Accurate Portrait of the Man Who is the Subject of “Gosnell – The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer”

 You might want to invite people who have no opinion on abortion in particular, because this movie presents the real face of the
Abortion Industry.

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

With the nationwide opening of “Gosnell – The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” just ahead on October 12, I’ve been looking around to read what critics who saw a sneak preview would say.

I ran across Stephanie Sadowski’s review which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her lead is encouraging:

There is a movie being made about Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, whose court case alone showed to be the stuff of horror films. And that is no hyperbole, exaggeration, or hype.

It honestly would be nigh on impossible to go any further than the truth. Gosnell murdered hundreds of full-term babies by delivering them alive and then severing their spinal cords. He killed thousands of other babies in his “House of Horrors” which was filthy nearly beyond description. Two women also died, although it is miracle given how unskilled Gosnell’s staff was, that many more women didn’t die.

Sadowski’s review is essentially a recitation of the grim facts of the case which culminated in three consecutive life sentences for Gosnell.

In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by “snipping” their spines, as he referred to it.

The gruesome details of Gosnell’s operation came out in 2011 during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell’s clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.

During the trial, Gosnell proved a solitary figure from beginning to end, with no friends or relatives in the courtroom, despite the fact he’s been married three times and has six children, nearly all of them adults.

Sadowski gives Gosnell’s standard defense, by quoting from a Philadelphia Daily News 2010 interview. “I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community,” Gosnell said, adding, “I believe in the long term I will be vindicated.”

I wrote about that interview at length. Please take a few minutes to read it. The interview Gosnell gave David Gambacorta long before he went on trial is incredibly revealing.

Sadowski ends with a paragraph that gives the reader a sense of just far Gosnell—this “positive force in the minority community”—would go. (Almost all of the women he aborted were women of color.)

Website: National Right to Life

Abortionist Featured in ‘Gosnell’ Movie Isn’t the Only One Committing Horrors

Killing preborn babies from the first through the third trimester is a dirty but lucrative business...

By Kelli

Live Action News

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Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist featured in the upcoming movie, “Gosnell,” ran what became known as a “house of horrors” where women were butchered and their babies often accidentally came out alive, only to have their spines “snipped” with surgical scissors by Gosnell while they fought for life. Investigators who raided his facility searching for evidence of illegal drugs found that cats had roamed freely leaving feces everywhere, nearly full-term aborted babies had been left in bags, and the dismembered body parts of aborted children were kept on display in jars.

READ: Child porn, sexual assault, molestation among crimes of these abortionists

As horrifying as this is, the public often has a far too “sterile” view of what abortionists do. The media says these are compassionate, legitimate physicians. But the reality is quite different. Abortion is the only so-called ‘surgical procedure’ with the sole purpose of killing a human being. Kermit Gosnell isn’t an “outlier.” Every abortionist kills human beings. Here is a short list of some of Gosnell’s abortion industry colleagues:

Curtis Boyd
Boyd runs Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), with branches in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Dallas, Texas. In Dallas, SWO commits abortions up to 21 weeks, and in Albuquerque, up to 32 weeks. Boyd is currently under formal review for the death of Keisha Marie Atkins, 23, who was six months pregnant when she aborted at SWO. 

Also, as previously reported by Live Action News, 

“Boyd‘s SWO facility in Albuquerque came under fire last year for its willingness to abort a 30-week preborn baby because of the mother’s ‘stress,'” and Boyd has “come under fire for harvesting aborted fetal body parts for University of Mexico researchers.” Boyd says he is “an ordained Baptist minister” turned Unitarian who admits he is “killing” when he commits abortions.

Steven Brigham
Steven Chase Brigham has had his license to practice medicine “revoked, relinquished, or suspended in five states,” according to a previous Live Action News article. He has been ordered multiple times to relinquish ownership of his abortion facilities in various states, yet failed to do so. As of 2015, Brigham still owned 16 abortion facilities in four states despite losing his license.

According to LifeSiteNews, investigators found the bodies of 35 late-term aborted babies in a “bloody freezer” at Brigham’s Elkton, Maryland, abortion facility. Brigham also led patients illegally to Maryland from other states to commit later-term abortions, and one 18-year-old patient nearly died under his supervision. LifeSite reports,

“So horrific were [the patient’s] injuries and so suspicious was Brigham’s behavior when they finally transported her to a nearby emergency room in the back seat of his rental car, that hospital staff notified the police and filed a complaint with the Maryland Board of Physicians.”

LeRoy Carhart
Carhart, who travels between Maryland and Nebraska to commit abortions, has killed at least two women and has injured many more. He has compared preborn children injected with feticide to stop their hearts to “meat in a Crock pot” and has joked about dismembering children in the womb with a “pickaxe and drill bit.” He has stated in an interview that “life begins when the mother thinks it begins.” Multiple complaints have been made about Carhart and his strange behavior, dating all the way back to 1991.

Lisa Harris

Planned Parenthood abortionist Lisa Harris is on record stating that she agrees that abortion is “violence” and “killing.” She was once moved to tears when her own preborn child kicked while she was dismembering another child of similar age in the womb. And yet, she still commits abortions. 

“There was a leg and foot in my forceps, and a ‘thump, thump’ in my abdomen,” she recalled. 

“Instantly, tears were streaming from my eyes… Doing second trimester abortions did not get easier after my pregnancy; in fact, dealing with little infant parts of my born baby only made dealing with dismembered fetal parts sadder.” Notice that she actually admits to “dismembering” these children.

Live Action News continues with three more profiles of late term abortionists: Warren Hern, Douglas Karpen, Willie Parker, Susan Robinson

“Gosnell” Movie Trailer Released, Horror Story of Abortionist Showing in 750 Theaters in October

By Steven Ertelt
Life News

The trailer for the new movie “Gosnell” has just been released and it will surely make watchers want to see the intense new film.

The feature film, “Gosnell,” which is scheduled for release in October, unmasks the shocking true story of the investigation and trial of Kermit Gosnell, a man who performed countless illegal, late-term abortions and murdered several born children as well.

He is the abortion practitioner who killed babies in live-birth abortions that were more akin to infanticide than abortion. The media virtually ignored Kermit Gosnell until the pro-life movement launched a concerned effort to call them out on their bias during the early stages of his trial for murder.

Now, Gosnell is prison, having been convicted of murder in the deaths of multiple babies,though he was accused of killing thousands of viable babies. Still, one report from Gallup showed a large percentage of Americans still have no idea who Gosnell is and what he did.

Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer opens nationwide on October 12 and stars Dean Cain as the detective who put Gosnell behind bars.

Movie executive director Phelim McAleer previously told LifeNews that, despite the grisly, horrific nature of the case, what astounded him the most was the lack of a media presence covering Gosnell’s trial. 

“This is one of the biggest stories I’ve ever seen, I’ve ever heard about, and there was no coverage at all,” he said.

After the events of Gosnell’s case concluded, McAleer and his wife, fellow journalist and documentarian Ann McElhinney, decided to take matters into their own hands.

“I just assumed then once he [Gosnell] was convicted, that there was going to be a mega movie, because why wouldn’t you make a movie out of this?” McAleer said.

 “So I waited and waited and I realized, wow, no one’s making a movie out of this? That’s because they don’t want—Hollywood doesn’t want to touch this story or cover this story. So, if they’re not going to do it, then I should do it. We’ve done this before; we’ve been telling stories all of our lives. We’ll just make a movie, and we did.”

Once the idea was set, the next major task was to allocate money to make the film. McAleer decided to crowdfund, a strategy he has used for previous films. He and his wife initially went to Kickstarter to fundraise, but they faced censorship on that site.

“Kickstarter said ‘yeah, you can [fundraise] here, but you have to change the description of your project,” McAleer said.

McAleer was asked to remove terms like “murder,” “murdering babies,” and “stabbing babies” from the description of their project, because the words were deemed offensive to Kickstarter’s community values. Gosnell was, in fact, convicted of murdering three newborn babies, and witnesses who testified at the trial said he killed them by stabbing the backs of the babies’ necks with scissors.

After the events of Gosnell’s case concluded, McAleer and his wife, fellow journalist and documentarian Ann McElhinney, decided to take matters into their own hands.

Life News article continues here

Actress in “Gosnell” Film Faced Similar Real-Life Situation

Hearing Baby's Heartbeat Stopped Her From Aborting Her Unborn Son

Tessya Whatley

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

One of my favorite actors, Nick Searcy, a the lead role in “Gosnell: The Movie,” which finally opens this October reportedly in over 700 theatres. The film is one of the largest crowd-sourced movies of all time.

For that tiny handful of pro-lifers who might not know, Kermit Gosnell, who operated the notorious “House of Horrors,” was a West Philadelphia abortionist who was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and a bevy of other lesser charges. Over the decades Gosnell delivered hundreds of very late-term babies alive and then murdered them by slicing their spinal cords.

Mr. Searcy appeared at NRLC’s 2018 annual convention, along with Executive Producer John Sullivan. The year before, Ann McElhinney, the producer of Gosnell the Movie and co-author of the New York Times Best Seller Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, was a featured speaker.

Ann told us an incredibly true-life story about the making of the film which I failed to pass along but which critic Christian Toto wrote about this week.

Tessya Whatley plays Viola Brown in the film. Viola considers an abortion but eventually chooses to give her baby life. “It’s a similar situation to what Whatley went through several years ago,” Toto writes. Whatley’s own son is now 6.

“I also was young and pregnant once,” she told the Daily Wire in an exclusive interview. “I went to actually abort my baby, and the nurse had let me hear my son’s heartbeat.”

As Whatley lay on the surgical table listening to her baby’s heartbeat while the nurse was out of the room, “I just started crying and decided it was something I couldn’t do, I couldn’t kill my baby,” she said.

“So I put my clothes on, I went out to my grandpa, I told him I couldn’t do it, he said, ‘let’s go,’” Whatley explained.

We [National Right to Life] will keep you updated as the movie locations are released.

Website: National Right to Life

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Gosnell Movie Release Set for October, Filmmakers 'Thrilled' Given Timing of Kennedy Retirement

By Brandon Showalter
Christian Post

A motion picture recounting the harrowing story of the trial of a Philadelphia abortionist and his many victims has a distributor and is now set for release later this year.

Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer will be released in October in 750 theaters nationwide through GVN Releasing, the Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday.

The movie, which producers and Irish journalists Anne McElhinney and Phelim McAleer made with approximately $2.3 million in a crowdfunding campaign, features actor Dean Cain as the lead detective who chased the case of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who is now in prison.

Gosnell is presently serving a life sentence for the murder of three infant babies and the involuntary manslaughter of one of his adult patients, Karnamaya Mongar.

"With the retirement of pro-abortion Kennedy, the release of our movie couldn't be more timely. The movie tells the truth about abortion, something sadly lacking in Hollywood and the mainstream media," said McElhinney in a statement to The Christian Post Wednesday, noting she was "thrilled."

Gosnell's abortion facility, which was referred to as a "House of Horrors" when it was finally exposed in 2010 — dozens of aborted babies and body parts were found in jars and the conditions inside were filthy — was allowed to operate because the state government failed to inspect the clinic for over 17 years.

The plot of the movie follows the trial of Gosnell, and includes gruesome details about Baby A, arguably the most famous of Gosnell's victims, the largest baby delivered who was estimated to be around 29 weeks old. Baby A was moving until Gosnell cut his spinal cord with scissors and witnesses testified that he joked that this particular baby was "big enough to walk me to the bus stop."

The movie also touches on the near total journalistic blackout on the story early in the trial. When Gosnell went to trail the press gallery was almost completely empty. Given the scale of the crimes committed the filmmakers maintain it ought to have made national headlines in the secular media but it did not until USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers learned of it and rebuked the mainstream media for deliberately ignoring the story.

Christian Post article continues here