Gosnell: The Untold Story - Background

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 Philem McAleer. I was surprised by how little I remembered from having read the hard copy version. As I listened, I found myself wanting to comment again and again to McElhinney and McAleer. I've realized that over 30 years of studying abortion malpractice and malfeasance gives me a unique perspective. I want to share that with my readers -- and with the authors of this groundbreaking, must-read book. I am not going to give a blow-by-blow account of what the authors cover. My commentary will be limited to what I can add from what I've observed.

I began research into abortion in the fall of 1983, after becoming pregnant with my son in very difficult circumstances. I had been taught in college that poor women who can't feed the children they already have need abortions. It's the only way they can fulfil their responsibilities to their born children. There I was in that situation. My husband and I had pawned our wedding rings to buy food for our daughter. I was skipping meals myself. At four months into the pregnancy I was still able to fit into clothing from the girls' department, a miniskirt and top for a job running a golf swing analyzer at a mall kiosk. I wasn't even beginning to show.

I knew that the entity growing inside my body was a baby, as precious as my daughter. But I had only just graduated from college in June. During those four years I'd absorbed a lot of the Leftist culture of the university setting. The only way I could afford to feed my daughter was to starve myself, which was starving my unborn baby. My primary responsibility was to feed Lisa. It was clear that I had to bite the bullet, to go against my conscience, to bear the moral and emotional burden of aborting the growing child within me.

There was a Planned Parenthood within walking distance. All I had to do was pick up the phone and make the appointment.

But I couldn't do it.

If I'd had prochoice friends, I'm sure that the phone call would have been made. My friends would have reassured me that I was making the right choice, however difficult it was. I had to think of Lisa. I had to think of the damage I'd inflicted on my unborn child already by starving myself to feed her. I had to do it.

Fortunately, there was somebody different in my life. My husband's best friend, Eddie. Eddie was the prochoice movement's worst nightmare: a prolife Catholic man. But Eddie was able to see what my husband and I couldn't see: that the problem was our living situation. My husband was in the Army, stationed at Fort Ord. We only had one month of temporary housing provided so we'd had to find a place quickly. The apartment we'd found was in Salinas, over a half-hour drive from the Presidio of Monterey where my husband commuted daily to the Defense Language School. We were far from the commissary or even an ordinary grocery store. And our apartment hadn't come with a refrigerator. We'd only been able to afford a bar fridge. We didn't have enough room to store enough food for a week. I made trips to a local mini mart where food was astronomically expensive. The cost of gas for my husband's commute was draining what little money we had. Clearly, Eddie insisted, we needed to find a cheaper place closer to the Presidio.

My husband and I balked. We'd searched. The area around Fort Ord was notorious for expensive housing and enlisted personnel who couldn't afford to feed their families. A 13-year-old boy, Danny Holly, had hanged himself in the hopes that having "one less mouth to feed" would ease his family's desperate financial situation. What hope was there that we could find a better place to live? We were convinced that it was hopeless. Eddie persevered. He pestered and finally one Saturday morning he physically pushed us towards the door and said, "You're looking for an apartment. Now."

We found one that day. It was much nicer, much cheaper, across the street from a grocery store, and in a spot where my husband could carpool to work. Within a few months we were caught up on our debts and not only feeding ourselves but able to invite guests to dinner.

The experience left me with a profound distaste for the prochoice movement, whose rhetoric had very nearly led to the needless death of my unborn son. I quickly volunteered at the local Birthright, where part of my training was to read Bernard Nathanson's Aborting America, a memoir of his role in launching NARAL -- then the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, now NARAL Pro-Choice America. I learned that deceit had been part and parcel of the prochoice movement from its inception. I have a low betrayal tolerance. I became determined to dig deeper.

I started doing research at the library, looking at News Bank. There I discovered the first two of the hundreds of abortion deaths I've since documented: Gloria Aponte and Ellen Williams. Both had died due to appalling malpractice. Gloria's abortionist, Hanan Rotem, had allowed his receptionist to administer general anesthesia. The clinic where Ellen had her abortion, Dadeland Family Planning, was a hell hole. Both deaths bear witness to the type of systematic slovenliness that would reach its full flower in Kermit Gosnell decades later. The response to the revelations about Dadeland -- a closing of ranks by the self-appointed protectors of women's rights -- sowed the seeds for that deplorable blossom. I only came to see this myself gradually.

During the 1980s, Operation Rescue began a program of blockading abortion facilities. News coverage of one of those blockades include a photo of a group of prolifers holding signs shaped like tombstones, each commemorating a woman who had died from a "safe and legal" abortion. Clearly Ellen and Gloria had not been flukes. I attended a prolife rally in DC. Somebody had left behind an "Abortion Death Log" that fell into my hands. I tracked down its author, Kevin Sherock. Sherlock was a dogged abortion death researcher who documented his work well. He went on to publish Victims of Choice based on that research. Sherlock's research uncovered scores of deaths, some with very few details available, some with an abundance. I'd encounter Kevin Sherlock again.

I went to work at Life Dynamics, a renegade prolife organization headquartered in Denton, Texas. We provided litigation support to plaintiff malpractice attorneys representing abortion-injured women and the families of those who died. What started out as a report to summarize what we had in our files turned into Lime 5, an expose of the scope of the malpractice problem and the combination of cover-up and emabling by the abortion lobby -- especially the National Abortion Federation -- and bureaucrats at the Centers for Disease Control.

While at Life Dynamics I experienced another eye-opener. We had obtained tapes of years and years of meetings and seminars held by the National Abortion Federation. If I had my wish, every recorded minute of every word spoken at those seminars and meetings would be readily available to the public. They include some of the most damning words ever uttered about what goes on behind the scenes in America's abortion clinics. The things David Daleiden recorded came as no surprise to me. They were totally in keeping with what I'd heard on those tapes from the late 1980s through mid 1990s. Nothing has really changed beyond technology making even more ghoulish endeavors possible.

When I left Life Dynamics, I took my files on a CD-ROM and eventually started first a web site, then a blog, then a wiki devoted to abortion deaths. I branched out to include deaths from the pre-legalization era as well because I don't believe that only one type of abortion death is tragic and unnecessary. The site that hosted my wiki closed down, but I was able to salvage most of the content, now at the Cemetery of Choice.

I have kept up-to-date on abortion deaths and malpractice and owe a massive debt of gratitude to Operation Rescue for how meticulously they document every cause of malpractice and death they encounter. They have prevented cover-ups with their perseverance and determination to dig until they get to the truth.

When the Gosnell story broke, I got a copy of the Grand Jury Report as quickly as I could and spent nearly a week of sleepless nights converting it into a searchable wiki plus commentary -- alas since relegated to the Internet Archive after my wiki host shut down. In all honesty, the only thing that really shocked me about the Gosnell story is that he was vigorously and successfully prosecuted. Yes, he was the worst I'd ever seen, but it was a mere matter of degree. Animals in clinics, filth, untrained staff, stockpiled fetal remains, bureaucratic indifference, and the abortion lobby getting away with their lame excuses because a complicit media spreads them unquestioningly are all par for the course in abortion practice. The aftermath -- that nothing has changed -- is also no surprise. Filthy clinics are uncovered, stockpiled fetuses are stumbled across, bureaucrats and officials turn a blind eye, babies are born alive and killed, women's lives are cut short by malpractice, and the media continue to uncritically defend the indefensible by covering it up.

I had long hoped that if given enough information about how appalling abortion practice really is, prochoice citizens would rise up and demand that the "safe" part of "safe and legal" be taken seriously. After thirty years, I'm ready to abandon that dream. Once you start to really care about how the women are treated, becoming a prolifer is inevitable. Once you become a prolifer, you are dismissed out of hand. Of course you say bad things about abortion -- you're one of Them. The fact that we are Them because the bad things are true can't penetrate the wall of fog the abortion lobby and its media lapdogs create. Denial: It's Not Just a River in Egypt.

I have no idea how long it will take to reach the tipping point, where the entire house of lies collapses under its own weight. I have come to doubt that it will come in my lifetime. Still, if I can even poke at that foundation of lie, maybe I can do my part to undermine it. Maybe, for my granddaughters, the days of Safe and Legal Abortion will be universally seen as shameful as the days of The Peculiar Institution of slavery.

In the mean time, I will do everything I can to get the truth out. One piece of that will be sharing and adding to the work of McElhinney and McAleer. Hats off to you, Ann and Philem. Would that all journalists were as honest and courageous as you.

Illegal Abortions: Doctors at Work

Introducing video commentary! Subscribe to the Cemetery of Choice YouTube channel to learn more about what we can learn from abortion deaths.



Injured While Her Abortionist Was Awaiting Trial

On February 18, 1916, Beulah Hatch, age 24, died at Mercy Hospital in Denver. Dr. Bennett Graff, already out on bond while awaiting trial for the February 2 abortion death of Ruth Camp, was believed to have perpetrated the abortion that likely killed Beulah. Both women, in fact, were in Mercy Hospital at the same time, which means that Beulah's abortion must have been perpetrated prior to Ruth's death.

Beulah had gone to Denver about six weeks prior to her death, installing herself in a rooming house and then entering Graff's care. He had her removed to the Panama rooming house, where he had offices. She remained there at the rooming house until her condition deteriorated to the point where somebody sent for her husband. Mr. Hatch summoned the family physician, Dr. Andrews, who came to Denver from Longmont. He examined Beulah and had her transferred to the hospital. Once she was there, Andrews transferred her to the care of a local physician, T. Mitchell Burns, who attended her until her death.

The Physician-Fiance

Kittie O'Toole

At about 2:00 p.m. on February 18, 1883, 28-year-old Irish immigrant Kittie O'Toole died at the office of Dr. C. H. Orton, her betrothed, in Milwaukee.

Orton attributed Kittie's death to an epileptic seizure. Orton's neighbors, however, found the death suspicious and demanded an investigation.

The coroner's jury found Orton culpable for two murders -- of Kittie and of her unborn baby -- for having perpetrated a fatal abortion.

Orton, a widower more than 60 years of age, was a prominent politician and a doctor of longstanding in the community, which makes it interesting that in late April a municipal court judge suddenly dismissed all of the charges against Orton.

Call for Comments from Pro-Choice Readers: What do you think?

Let's imagine for a moment that we had Star Trek style technology available and that made "beaming" the z/e/f (zygote/embryo/fetus) into a biohazard container the preferred and safest abortion method.

Let's say that the technology was further modified so that the z/e/f could be beamed instead into an artificial womb where it could complete gestating and be placed for adoption. Let's say that the entire cost of the artificial womb were paid for voluntarily by pro-adoption people so that there was no additional expense to the woman or to her insurance company or to the government.

Would you consider beaming the z/e/f into the safe place to be an acceptable alternative to beaming it into the biohazard container? Or would the destruction of the z/e/f be a key and non-negotiable component of the right to end the pregnant state?

#AbortionMatters: Let's Embrace Their Goals!

Here's the "Feminist Majority Foundation" page announcing the #AbortionMatters" "blog carnival."

Abortion. How festive.

Now -- let's look at what they say, and address the issues in a life-affirming way, not in the "What we need is for everybody to agree with us that abortion is the single most wonderful thing any woman can have at her disposal" light the FMF intends:

#AbortionMatters will showcase various personal essays and short policy pieces that stress the importance of a federal – and wholly national – approach to abortion. In an effort to destigmatize abortion, encourage wider education on the procedure, and normalize the conversation, we’re gathering stories to illustrate the complexity and unique experiences which shape the pro-choice movement and demand greater action. Pieces should stress / mention why a cohesive, national approach to abortion issues and decisions leads to better healthcare and well-being for women.

 1. I agree that there does need to be "a federal -- and wholly national -- approach to abortion." After all, the 14th Amendment specifically says that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process." Legal abortion creates an entire class of people who can be deprived of life without due process, and thus is clearly unconstitutional.

2. We do need to "encourage wider education" on abortion procedures. People need to be made aware of exactly who is being destroyed, and how, and why.

3. "A cohesive, national approach to abortion issues and decisions" would indeed lead to better health care and well-being for women. A pregnant woman facing challenges should be offered help and support, not turned over to people who will scrape her out then shove her out the door to bleed and vomit in the parking lot. Not to mention the adverse effects of abortion on women.

Of course, they add the "destigmatize" abortion. Gosh, it turns out that slaughtering your own children is still considered a shameful thing. Who woulda thunk it?  We don't need to make abortion acceptable; we need to make it unthinkable. And if we keep pounding away at the three points, the things that FMF claims they want to do, we can get people to start asking why anybody would want abortions to be tolerated at all.

So let's get going! Go on and read the rules. Write and submit those blog posts! Submit them to the FMF, AND to me here! The email address is socialmedia@feminist.org. Put the links to your blog posts in the comments and I'll keep updating the list of entries that were submitted to FMF.

Let's have that national dialog, shall we?

"And Then You Can Kill the Baby"

I'll start by giving you Josh Brahm's splendiferous response to a listener mail about whether or not incremental absolutism (chipping away until you get all babies protected) is an endorsement of killing the babies a law does not protect.



For those who don't want to listen to the whole thing at the moment, I'll take a juicy chunk from Josh's blog post on the topic:

Here’s the question: do you think it’s more important to make an impact or to make a statement? I’d rather make an impact, and I reject the notion that passing a bill with a rape exception tacked onto it at the last minute sends a message to pro-choice people that we don’t care about the babies conceived in rape that are sometimes killed in abortions. They know we want to make all abortions illegal, and that makes them furious. But passing a bill that bans abortions after 20-weeks because CLEARLY those babies can feel pain would be the most significant legal pro-life victory since the Supreme Court passed the Gonzales vs. Carhart decision, upholding a ban on partial-birth abortions.

When I say I’d rather make an impact than a statement, some absolutists accuse me of following the wisdom of man instead of the heart of God. My response: the midwives in Exodus 1 made an impact by saving as many babies as they could, and they are praised for it, even though they didn’t make a statement. When the Pharaoh confronted them, they didn’t make a pro-life argument or statement; they lied about it so that they could continue saving some! It could be argued that they were implicitly telling the leader of the land that it’s okay to kill infants. They never to his face say, “You shouldn’t do that.” They lied, and saved as many as they could, and are praised and blessed by God.

 As you can probably tell from my blog, my own approach is neither incrementalism (nickle and diming abortion to death) nor absolutism (just get it banned in one fell swoop). This does not mean that I do not support incrementalists or absolutists. I think that both are necessary. 

Imagine the abortion monolith as a building. Both the incrementalists and the absolutists want that building DOWN. Incrementalists are doing things that undermine the structural integrity of the building. Absolutists are planting demolition charges. It would take ages for the incrementalists to bring that building down. But this building is so solidly built, so heavily reinforced with steel, that the amount of dynamite the absolutists have would only rattle the building and make chunks fall off. The building itself will still be standing. I think that God shows His wisdom in that he set people to both tasks -- undermining the structural integrity and planting the demolition charges. And I think it's not just stupid but sinful for those one one work crew, incrementalist or absolutist, to bear false witness against the other work crew, claiming that they don't really want the building to come down.

Of course, the whole image has to be abandoned as just that -- an image. Abortion is not a building that we can demolish. It is a manifestation of Evil. Capital-E Evil. There is an intelligence behind it, a diabolical intelligence that has been around for a very, very long time and is very, very good at what it does. We are guilty of a hubris that puts White Star Line to shame if we think we can defeat that Evil by passing laws of any sort.

Which is what I'm back to. A Wisdom far greater than ours is directing this effort. We need to work at the tasks that are set before each of us. Some of us are set to directly helping women. Some of us are set to work in the legal arena. Some of us are set to educational tasks. Some of us are set to incrementalist tasks and some to absolutist tasks, because both are necessary.

But not a one of us has the task of attacking others who are set to different tasks.

Help Producers of Gosnell Documentary Expose the Truth

If you haven't seen 3801 Lancaster yet, here it is, a powerful short documentary about the horrors at Kermit Gosnell's squalid Philadelphia abortion mill:



The producers have continued to put out amazing videos. This short piece with the mother and grandmother of one of the babies whose severed feet Gosnell saved is a gut-wrencher:



And listen to this Pennsylvania state Representative Margo Davidson describe how her cousin Semika Shaw's death at Gosnell's clinic devastated her family, and the institutional denial that allowed Gosnell to operate his dangerous practice:



All of this amazing video is being made available to you free of charge.

Now that the trial is over, the producers have a chance to interview the members of law enforcement who were part of the raid and the investigation. You can help them to expose the truth of what happens when prochoice groups, politicians, and bureaucrats are trusted to oversee abortion. Help them to finance the production of the next segment of 3801 Lancaster by going to their website and clicking on the donation link. Show the film to friends and ask them to chip in just a dollar or two and then make a donation on behalf of the group. Even if you can only muster $5 or $10, you can help to expose what we already know: that just because the authorities have been notified and have "investigated" and found no problem doesn't mean that there is no problem. It can just mean that the abortion lobby has a lot of power. People expect the abortion lobby to be indifferent to the babies' lives. Let's expose the degree to which their indifferent even to the women's lives.