Medical Predators

"We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of colour, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion."
2011 grand jury report

Abortion is a disagreeable issue people would far prefer not to discuss. It is an incendiary subject, about which people simply cannot agree. Though most reasonable people will agree that early-stage pregnancies can be terminated well before a foetus reaches the stage of viability, if the mental and physical health of the mother, or any other reason held to be representative of the right of a woman to choose whether or not she is prepared to carry to full term is recognized.

In most countries it is a given that abortions should be available through the regular health system. But even so, it is a topic that elicits huge debate, and one that is habitually campaigned against by people whose philosophical or religious sensibilities dictate against acceptance. There appears always to be an air of psychological discomfort from either camp, the pro-abortion and so-called pro-life groups.

And then there is the problem that medical practitioners face, those who agree that a medical procedure should be permitted to enable women to terminate unwanted pregnancies. These doctors are often hounded by that segment of society that campaigns vigorously against abortion. Violence directed toward abortion doctors on the part of fanatics has resulted in deaths of a number of abortion providers.

And then there is the instance of Philadelphia doctor Dr. Kermit Gosnell whose clinic offering abortions has been revealed as a charnel house. Evidence given at his trial for murder by those who worked alongside him , people whose medical credentials were either suspect or absent, and who did his bidding, and who have themselves been imprisoned for their part in the late-term abortions, illegal under state law, have painted a ghastly picture of avarice and cruel medical incompetence.

Dr. Gosnel may face the death penalty under Pennsylvania law if he is found guilty of first-degree murder of a woman under his care, and seven infants who were delivered as late-stage pregnancies and survived the abortion procedure. Their spines were cut with scissors to hasten their deaths. Eight clinic workers were charged alongside the doctor, including his wife who aided him in performing third-term abortions.

His lawyer claims "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give [back] to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia", speaking to the predominately black jury. "It's a prosecutorial lynching of Dr. Kermit Gosnell."  The grand jury report briefly cited above described filthy, blood-stained operating areas, women and teens maimed during surgery when Dr. Gosnell perforated a uterus or colon.

"Anybody walking into that clinic should have known immediately that it should have been shut down", said a lawyer for the family of a 41-year-old refugee from Bhutan who died after she was given so much anaesthesia and pain medication during a 2009 abortion that it killed her.