First Do No Harm

I spent the weekend reading my friends, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer’s new book, “Gosnell: the Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer”. I’m struggling to find words to describe how I feel.

Shocked……disgusted……heartbroken…….but, mostly, I think, outraged. Outraged at the utter failure of institutions and agencies we all believed were doing the job of protecting us. I knew about Gosnell and his preference for delivering live babies and snipping their necks. And I knew that due to agencies responsible for overseeing the adherence of regulations bypassing Gosnell’s clinic, it had fallen into disrepair. That was upsetting enough but what I didn’t know is that agencies HAD visited his clinic and HAD seen the indescribable filth, expired, improperly stored drugs, broken equipment, flea ridden cats, overwhelming smell of urine, blood soaked chairs, baby parts in a garbage disposal, and juice containers filled with dead babies. Emergency room doctors and police departments knew about the women who nearly died from infection caused by dirty instruments or an arm or leg left in the womb. They knew about women being infected with STD’s they didn’t have when they arrived at the clinic. EMT’s knew they couldn’t get gurneys down the narrow, cluttered hallways to remove dying women. And they knew about the women who died from being overmedicated by completely incompetent staff.

Some of those who were aware of what was going on in Gosnell’s house of horrors did report it, but their supervisors found no reason for further investigation. Past employees reported what was going on to authorities who filed their reports away. How is this possible? The argument we hear pro-choicers shout whenever any restriction on abortion is suggested is, “You’ll force women into back alley abortions. Women will die”. While reading “Gosnell” I asked myself over and over, “How is this different than a back alley abortions”? Women and live babies died horrifically in Gosnell’s clinic. Why did none of those agencies stop it? Unrestricted abortions must be protected at ALL COSTS? Are all our institutions infected with pro-choice activists who think this is the price we have to pay for abortions “rights”? Is this happening across the country?

Although the Gosnell trial had all the blood and sensationalism media lives for, the media has become more committed to protecting the Liberal agenda than informing the public. Unlimited access to abortion is on the top of that agenda. But I didn’t think the Health Department was political. I didn’t expect ER doctors, who will call Child Protective Services in a nano-second if they suspect your child’s injury was not accidental, would consider an obviously botched abortion unworthy of investigation.

The Liberal media made all sorts of lame excuses for not covering the Gosnell trial, it was a local story, there was so much news to cover it simply wasn’t on their radar, yadda, yadda, yadda. It wasn’t until social media forced them to acknowledge the trial that they covered it at all. However, the cover up continues and what is their excuse now? Within three days of release, “Gosnell” sold out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It should have been listed 3rd on the NY Times best selling list but wasn’t listed at all.

As well as being left off the bestselling list, the movie made about the trial has been turned down by every distribution company. They all say it’s a powerful movie but it’s, “not for them”. I never thought I’d see this sort of censorship in America.

I had been pro-choice most of my adult life. When Roe vs Wade passed I thought every baby should be welcome and loved. Roe vs Wade only allowed abortions in the first trimester so aborting a viable infant wasn’t a concern for me. I hadn’t been aware Doe vs Wade changed the law to include the mental health of the mother which opened abortions to beyond the first trimester. So, I continued to believe they were safe, legal and rare. According to polls, the public is realizing abortions aren’t safe, legal or rare and are increasingly in support of protecting the unborn.

I believe, “Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer” should be in every Library and on the reading list of every school. People need to buy several books and give them to friends. It’s a tough read but a valuable one.