Recently I was fortunate to attend a pre-release screening of a movie about the real-life trial of the real-life most prolific serial killer in the US. I say real-life, because this person exists. He’s killed hundreds of people. And he was allowed to operate because Truth got murdered somewhere along the way, and he wasn’t exposed for nearly 30 years.
His name is Kermit Gosnell. He’s a doctor. He’s a fine pianist and a cultured man. He was convicted in 2013 of three counts of capital murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, 24 counts of performing abortions after 24 weeks, and 211 counts of violating the 24 hour rule before performing an abortion.
He wasn’t convicted of performing abortions which do murder the unborn. He was convicted of snipping the spinal cords of infants that were born alive during an abortion procedure, putting those infants in a tray, and putting them on a shelf.
The interesting thing about this story is that had it not been for some interest in Dr. Gosnell’s side business, writing illegal opioid prescriptions, we might never know about this case. In fact, he might be continuing to do what he did today.
Dr. Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia was raided by a combined DEA-FBI-Philadelphia PD task force in late 2010. The task force was looking for evidence that he had been trafficking in narcotics. What they found was so much more horrifying.
In addition to drugs, they found a clinic that made a 1920s slaughterhouse look clean, undisposed of medical waste in bags and jugs in the refrigerator, whole aborted babies, rusty, bloody instruments, equipment that didn’t work, and jars and jars of baby feet. Dr. Gosnell kept the feet of babies he had aborted in order to, as he claimed, comply with the requirement to collect the DNA.
How on earth could this be allowed to happen?
Well, in short, Truth got sacrificed on the altar of politics.
In grand jury testimony, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Health claimed that no one had filed a complaint against Dr. Gosnell. Not true by the way, the complaints about his clinic numbered in the 100s, including several where women got sexually transmitted diseases as a result of their “treatment”. And the Department of Health representative also said that Dr. Gosnell’s clinic was last inspected in 1993.
Grand jury testimony took place in 2011. No one from the Department of Health had inspected his premises in 17 years! If he had been inspected, maybe someone would have flagged the fact that untrained personnel were giving anesthesia which lead to the death of at least one woman. If he had been inspected, he might have been cited for the filthy conditions at his clinic, the fact that one-time-use instruments were being re-used. If he had been inspected, maybe someone would have found the babies in the freezer.
So, why wasn’t Dr. Gosnell inspected?
According to the Department of Health, the governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, a Republican, order them to avoid inspecting abortion clinics because of the politics involved.
Yep. Nobody inspected this guy because they didn’t want to get the pro-abortion and anti-abortion crowds riled up. Because “peace” in the community is so much more important that patient safety. Remember the pro-aborts wanted abortion legalized because women shouldn’t be forced into a back alley.
This place was so much worse than a back alley. And nobody wanted to talk about it.
When Dr. Gosnell’s trial first began, there was almost no media presence. You might expect that this would have been a circus. Nope. The media stayed away until a blogger tweeted out a picture of the empty press section, explain a few facts in the case, and her Tweet went viral.
The media was shamed into covering it. The media was finally forced to confront the truth about this guy.
Time and time again, Truth gets sacrificed in order to salve the feelings of others. Remember the AIDS crisis in the 80s? Do you remember how no one would talk about the cause of death when a young man in his 20s or 30s died? Or when Rock Hudson died?
AIDS was a public health crisis in many communities, and no one wanted to talk about ways to confront it, in order to not stigmatize the victims. Truth got sacrificed.
Remember the public accusations of sexual misconduct or other corruption against Bill Clinton? Truth got sacrificed in order to prop up a president who supported abortion. People went to jail rather than talk about Clinton’s role in defrauding investors in Whitewater.
Truth gets sacrificed all the time to promote someone’s agenda.
And in the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, women were injured, made ill, or died. Not to mention the babies in the freezer.
Go see the movie. It’s time to rescue Truth.
Sandra Peterson
Follow me on Twitter @janevonmises
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 23: The Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania holds a 'Mercy Witness For Life' rally on July 23, 2016 outside of the former site of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's closed abortion clinic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Three years ago, Dr. Gosnell was convicted of the first-degree murder of three infants, the involuntary manslaughter of his patient Karnamaya Mongar, and other felony counts.(Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)