RealChoice: Gosnell: The Grand Jury Convened

On May 4, 2010, a Grand Jury convened to deliberate over the goings-on at Dr. Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic.

The whole investigation had begun unexpectedly when on February 18 the FBI, along with detectives from the Philadelphia DA's office, staged a raid on Gosnell's Women's Medical Society at 3801 Lancaster Avenue. They were serving a warrant related to allegations that Gosnell was running a pill mill.

The team awaited Gosnell's arrival, at about 8:30 p.m., before entering the clinic. What they found left them stunned and appalled. The Grand Jury summarized their discovery:

There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea-infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets.

All the women had been sedated by unlicensed staff – long before Gosnell arrived at the clinic – and staff members could not accurately state what medications or dosages they had administered to the waiting patients.

.... Agent Dougherty described [the procedure rooms] as resembling “a bad gas station restroom.” Instruments were not sterile. Equipment was rusty and outdated. Oxygen equipment was covered with dust, and had not been inspected. The same corroded suction tubing used for abortions was the only tubing available for oral airways if assistance for breathing was needed. There was no functioning resuscitation or even monitoring equipment, except for a single blood pressure cuff in the recovery room....

Bagged fetal remains in clinic freezer

The search team discovered fetal remains haphazardly stored throughout the clinic – in bags, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, and even in cat-food containers. .... Gosnell admitted to Detective Wood that at least 10 to 20 percent of the fetuses were probably older than 24 weeks in gestation – even though Pennsylvania law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks. ....

The investigators found a row of jars containing just the severed feet of fetuses. ....

Karnamaya Mongar

In total, the Grand Jury heard from 58 witnesses and examined thousands of of pieces of evidence. They learned the full extent of the deplorable conditions at Gosnell's clinic, about the deaths of Semika Shaw and Karnamaya Mongar, and about the murders of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of newborn infants.

Most disturbingly, they learned about ideologically-driven failure of the authorities to inspect and close down the clinic, even after one employee came forward with the full horrors of what was going on there. This ideological devotion to abortion access, even at the cost of women's lives, is an enduring one among abortion-rights activists and supporters.

In spite of the spectacular nature of the story -- a drug dealer committing multiple murders and keeping body parts as souvenirs -- the mainstream media were, and have remained, silent and indifferent. Their silence likely stems from the same motives that led the authorities to turn a blind eye. As the Grand Jury noted:

We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.

Abortion-vulnerable women are not safe as long as ideological devotion to abortion remains paramount among those entrusted with their well-being. This is why the story of Kermit Gosnell must be told, why the silence must be broken. Filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney have launched a crowdfunding effort to produce a movie about Gosnell's crimes.I'm asking my readers to support this project in any way they can:

Contributing funding of as little as $1, less than the cost of a soft drink, both to help financially and to send a message that the people want the cover-up to end.

Prayer that what was done -- and continues to be done -- in the darkness will come to light.

Spreading the word about this vital project.

Let's make this a reality.