Vol. 75/No. 7      February 21, 2011

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, director of the clinic, has been indicted on eight counts of murder, which includes one woman who the district attorney says died from a sedative overdose, and seven charges of “infanticide,” alleging that fetuses were delivered alive and then had their spinal cords severed. Nine clinic staff workers have been charged, three for “murder of a viable baby.”

A report by the grand jury convened by Williams alleged the clinic has been grossly substandard and dangerous in its practices.

The clinic has been sued at least 15 times for malpractice by women patients, and former patients are now speaking out about the conditions they experienced.

According to Time magazine, “Clearly, the Women’s Medical Society was a health-care provider of last resort. Many of the women who came were too young, or too far along in their pregnancies to be treated by the mainstream medical establishment.”

The media has been filled with lurid descriptions of the practices at Gosnell’s clinic, excerpted from the grand jury report. The clinic was ordered closed a year ago and Gosnell’s medical license revoked.

The 261-page grand jury report often reads more like an assault on a woman’s right to choose abortion than a criminal indictment. It urges sweeping changes that would make it more difficult for women in Pennsylvania to obtain an abortion. The report charges that the Pennsylvania Department of Health “abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all.”

The report urges relaxing the statute of limitations “for illegal abortions beyond 24 weeks,” and amending the Abortion Control Act to add criminal penalties for what it calls “mutilation of any fetal remains, whether or not viable or born alive.”

The grand jury recommends pathology reports after 20 weeks where the doctor “must certify that the fetus is not viable and send the fetus to a pathologist for confirmation,” and that the Department of Health “give itself the power” to permanently close a facility providing abortions if it fails to report a second- or third-trimester abortion.

The report calls Gosnell’s clinic a “baby charnel house.” The Philadelphia Inquirer calls Gosnell a “back alley abortionist” and the Daily News calls his clinic an “abortion mill.”

The political content of the grand jury report has been seized by opponents of abortion rights—from Michael McMonagle, public affairs director for the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, to the national Weekly Standard magazine.

“Once you dehumanize the unborn child,” McMonagle told the Inquirer, “what Gosnell is, is just a logical extension of the so-called right to choose.” An article in the Weekly Standard said, “The abortion business is the gutter of American medicine.”

Democratic and Republican political figures immediately went on record to support the grand jury report and the charges. Outgoing governor Edward Rendell released a statement saying he was “flabbergasted” that the health department did not supervise the clinic.

Two weeks into his term, Pennsylvania governor Thomas Corbett, who campaigned against abortion rights, called the findings “horrific.”

Dayle Steinberg, president of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, responded to the call for more restrictions in the aftermath of the indictments. “The fact is abortion is already a highly restricted procedure, especially in Pennsylvania, where regulations include mandatory waiting periods and traveling two or three times to separate appointments.

“These restrictions have caused some women to delay abortion procedures, often into the second trimester, where it becomes both a higher medical risk and more expensive,” he said.

“Restrictions that would further hinder access to safe abortion are not the answer, and will only increase the number of poor women who are forced by circumstances to turn to unsafe options for care.”

Supporters of women’s right to choose also point out that for 26 years Pennsylvania has banned Medicaid funding for the procedure.

“These charges are being used to attack a woman’s right to abortion,” said Osborne Hart, who ran as the Socialist Workers Party candidate for district attorney in 2009. “Assaults against abortion rights, efforts to stigmatize Planned Parenthood and other providers, and increased restrictions on access have resulted in abortion being unavailable in 87 percent of the counties across the country. This combined with most hospitals banning abortions is responsible for a situation where some women are driven to go to facilities that operate the way the Women’s Medical Society is being described.”  
 
 
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