A doctor who gave abortions to minorities, immigrants and poor women in a “house of horrors” clinic was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said.
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Early last year, authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic and stumbled on what Williams called a “house of horrors.”
Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses “were scattered throughout the building,” Williams said. “There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose.”
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White women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area because Gosnell believed they were more likely to file complaints, Williams said. “People knew near and far that if you needed a late-term abortion you could go see Dr. Gosnell,” Williams said.
Few if any of the sedated women knew their babies were born alive and then killed, prosecutors said. Many were first-time mothers who were told they were 24 weeks pregnant, even if they were further along, authorities said.
Maybe because when you create an environment where nobody sane dares perform abortions, and where abortions still need to be performed, only the insane will perform them.
Or maybe some monsters are just very good at being monsters.
Of course we can. Unfortunately, I fear this is more grist for the mill of hard-core pro-life rhetoric, and will be used to undercut the framing of pregnancy termination as a medical procedure performed by trained, licensed professionals. As well, it may take some wind out of the sails of the argument that outlawing abortions will result in back-alley coat hangar remedies. That’s a lot of metaphors for two sentences!
Are you suggesting that late-term abortions (outside of obvious medical situations) are something you support? Because I’m under the impression that most people oppose them, even people who are pro-choice in general.
No. He’s saying that even though abortion is legal, there is a hostile environment toward those who perform them. If that gets bad enough, you would have to be a bit nuts to keep doing it, because you have to face up to such hostility. This means that some crackpots will be involved with the practice, and such crackpots may not know (or respect) the proper boundaries for when abortion is or is not acceptable.
I agree completely. I should point out that I was just explaining what disconnected was saying. I don’t actually agree with it. I think most abortion doctors are doing what they do because they believe in a person’s right to choose, and I’m sure most follow the legal procedures in the proper way. This guy is just some sick bastard out there.
Are you suggesting that late-term abortions (outside of obvious medical situations) are something you support?
I hate to break it to you, but women are not monsters. Women don’t carry a pregnancy for 6 months and then decide On A Whim to abort so they can fit back into their bathing suit. When a woman goes for a late term abortion, the situation is pretty much that she wanted to be a mom and then she realized that something was wrong and she couldn’t be a mom, after all, or that she is being kept from an abortion by an abusive situation (like, for ex, her dad knocked her up and won’t allow her to seek abortion).
How are laws intended to stop monsters from being monsters, though?
No licensed doctor would perform a late term abortion on a woman who swans in at 7 months and says she’s sick of being pregnant (or she wants to get back at her boyfriend or she wants to fit back into her bathing suit etc). The malpractice risk would be way too high.
Laws against Late Term Abortion don’t do anything to stop monsters from being monsters. They put serious blocks in front of women who have been put in an awful situation from solving their problem. They endanger lives and families. They won’t stop women who find that being pregnant gets in the way of prostituting themselves for heroin from going to back-alley surgeons.
Timex, please don’t shit up yet another thread. Please.
Are we allowed to discuss the ethical issues involved in late term abortions?
While I don’t need your permission, I’m asking because if it’s really just going to turn into “STFU TIMEX” regardless of what’s said, then it’s going to be pointless. I also realize that this issue tends to be somewhat emotionally loaded.
However, it’s a valid topic, especially in the case where children are actually delivered alive and then killed, as this starts to cross into an area where it becomes harder for people to agree with compared to aborting an embryo.
It’s also somewhat different from the original topic though, since I think most folks seem to agree that the situation in this case is just messed up on virtually every level.
