Saturday, April 04, 2020

Gosnell: The Untold Story - Anger and Law-Breaking

Stuck at home during the ChiCom Virus quarantine, I started listening to the audiobook of Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer, by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. First I wrote up some background information about why I believe I have something unique to offer in commentary on the book. I followed up with a review of notable instances of press coverage of abortion atrocities. In this series of commentaries, I won't be reiterating what Ann and Phelim say, because I think that it's important for people to read the book to get the full context. I'm only addressing areas where I think my odd expertise adds something important.

In the foreword, Alan Robertson wrote of his anger towards everybody involved: Gosnell, his staff, the enablers in the state bureaucracy, the media, and the abortion lobby. I would add my own thirty years of built up anger against ordinary garden-variety prochoicers, who steadfastly refuse to see that there are systematic problems. Yes, the media and the abortion lobby provide them with handy excuses, but an excuse is an excuse, whether it's prefab or one you invent on your own. I have been telling prochoicers about the reality of how abortion is practiced in America since I stumbled across the deaths of Ellen Williams and Gloria Aponte in the mid-1980s, and I have yet to encounter one who doesn't brush off even the most appalling cases as not worthy of attention. "The authorities are dealing with it. You're being silly to think there's any kind of ongoing, systemic problem." The fact that I've been researching and documenting abortion deaths for over 30 years counts for nothing. And as I noted in my write-up about the media, even when a prochoicer does speak out, he or she is quickly silenced by the mainstream of the movement. It's simply not okay to question. In prochoice America, it's the person who puts the safety of the women first who is the true outlier, not the seedy abortionist.

Pennsylvania's failure to enforce the law is hardly unique.

When Phil Kline tried to hold George Tiller accountable for his illegal third-trimester abortions, Kansas authorities not only covered up for Tiller, they launched a career-destroying vendetta against Kline. Of course the media went along with it unquestioningly and provided the abortion lobby with material for their victimization claims. Considering how often Gosnell referred to Tiller as his friend, and how often the two must have met at National Abortion Federation seminars, one must wonder if Tiller provided Gosnell with tips about which palms to grease and how to make it all look legit.

We can also look at the well-founded allegations against Douglas Karpen, the "Texas Gosnell." Karpen had a history of malpractice, including the death of Denise Montoya. Like Gosnell, he flushed fetal remains down the toilet. Three of his employees came forward with credible evidence -- including, like Gosnell's employees, photographic evidence (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC) -- that Karpen was delivering and killing live, viable babies. Though all of the evidence was forwared to Texas authorities, who convened a grand jury, Karpen was never charged for his crimes. (If I recall correctly, Texas will not prosecute for murder unless they have a body. This might be Karpen's escape hatch.) He might also be getting support via the National Abortion Federation, of which he is a member.




Planned Parenthood's brazen law-breaking is an issue unto itself. I can't recall any state in the union that has held them accountable.

Of course, letting abortionists brazenly break the law is nothing new. Arlen Spector was Pennsylvania Attorney General during the "Mother's Day Massacre." Gosnell faced no legal consequences and Harvey Karman, the unlicensed psychologist who masterminded the "super coils," got away with a slap on the wrist and died an abortion-rights hero. The women he injured -- and Joyce Johnson, the woman he killed in an illegal abortion in 1955 -- simply don't matter.

Here are a few older examples of abortionists getting away with murder:

1970: William Day, a microbiology student with ambitions of becoming a doctor, got a suspended sentence in the abortion death of his girlfriend, Nancy Kierzek.

1956: Dr. Robert Spencer, hailed by abortion enthusiasts as "The Angel of Ashland," managed to be acquitted after the death of Mary Davies -- ostensibly because nobody could prove that the baby hadn't already been dead, but more likely because he was a popular small town doctor.

1942: Cleo Moore named Dr. Frank Marino as her abortionist before dying of her injuries. Marino, who frequently golfed with the prosecutor, was of course acquitted.

1930: Ethel Crowell died of abortion complications in the Chicago office of Dr. Hans Paulsen. The indictment against him was quashed under circumstances that the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database describes as "circumstances suggesting judicial corruption."

1920: Dr. Charles W. Milliken perpetrated a fatal abortion on Frances Karies. Evidently no action was taken against him because he was still free to perform fatal abortions on Iva Triplet and Florence Cobb the following year.

1921: Evidence is strong that the death of Virginia Rappe, for which Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was wrongfully prosecuted, was actually the result of an abortion perpetrated at Wakefield Sanitorium. Wakefield was a very thinly disguised abortion mill, and a reputed abortionist performed Virginia's autopsy there, disposing of her reproductive organs and thus evidence that would have implicated any Wakefield associates. The vigorous attack on Arbuckle and the utter lack of attention focused on Wakefield bears notice. Were people in high positions availing themselves of Wakefield's dubious services?

1913 - 1934: Dr. Anna Adler was implicated in six Chicago abortion deaths. She was indicted for the 1913 death of Anna Adler but the case never went to trial. She was held by the coroner but never indicted for the 1924 death of Mary Whitney. She was indicted for the 1928 deaths of Anna Borndal and Esther Wahlstrom. I've only found evidence of a trial for Esther's death. Davis might have been convicted, but she was freed on appeal. Irene Kirschner died after an abortion attributed to Davis in 1932, and though police found another abortion-injured woman at Davis' house, the abortionist evaded capture. She was tried three time for the 1934 abortion death of Gertrude Gaesswitz, with trials ending in a hung jury, an overturned conviction, and an acquittal.

1891 - 1926: In spite of being implicated in thirteen abortion deaths in Chicago, Dr. Lucy Hagenow was only jailed three times and won early release every time. Hagenow had been implicated in four San Francisco abortion deaths in the 1880s and 1890s, working as "Dr. Louisa Hagenow," and had relocated to Chicago when it became clear that San Francisco authorities wouldn't let repeated hung juries stop them from prosecuting her.

If there's one thing I've learned from over 30 years of researching abortion deaths, it's the degree to which women's safety hinges on two things: how much quackery the women and their associates consider allowable and how willing the authorities are to crack down on quackery. All of the people who contributed to women's abortion deaths have been people who consider abortion an acceptable way to deal with pregnancy. In other words, every abortion death was, start to finish, the work of prochoice people. No prolife person has ever lead a vulnerable woman to her death, yet somehow we're the ones who get the blame. Prochoicers cause the deaths by their unwillingness to hold abortionists accountable. It's always been that way. And that's another reason why those are the people who deserve the most anger.


No comments: