http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110119/ap_on_re_us/us_abortion_clinic_investigation
Associated Press
Wed Jan 19, 6:57 pm ET
DA: Pa. abortion doc killed 7 babies with scissors
By MARYCLAIRE DALE and PATRICK WALTERS
Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, who catered to
minorities, i AP – FILE - This Feb. 23, 2010 file photo, shows the Women's
Medical Society in Philadelphia. Abortion doctor …
By MARYCLAIRE DALE and PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press
Maryclaire Dale And Patrick Walters, Associated Press – Wed Jan 19, 6:57 pm ET
PHILADELPHIA – A doctor whose abortion clinic was
described as a filthy, foul-smelling "house of horrors" that was
overlooked by regulators for years was charged Wednesday with murder, accused
of delivering seven babies alive and then using scissors to kill them.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell was also charged with murder in the
death of a woman who suffered an overdose of painkillers while awaiting an
abortion.
In a nearly 300-page grand jury report filled with
ghastly, stomach-turning detail, prosecutors said Pennsylvania regulators
ignored complaints of barbaric conditions at Gosnell's clinic, which catered to
poor, immigrant and minority women in the city's impoverished West Philadelphia
section.
Prosecutors called the case a "complete regulatory
collapse."
"Pennsylvania is not a Third World country,"
the district attorney's office declared in the report. "There were several
oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell
long ago."
Gosnell, 69, was arrested and charged with eight counts
of murder in all. Nine of Gosnell's employees — including his wife, a
cosmetologist who authorities say performed abortions — also were charged.
Prosecutors said Gosnell made millions of dollars over
three decades performing thousands of dangerous abortions, many of them illegal
late-term procedures. His clinic had no trained nurses or medical staff other
than Gosnell, a family physician not certified in obstetrics or gynecology,
prosecutors said.
At least two women died from the procedures, while scores
more suffered perforated bowels, cervixes and uteruses, authorities said.
Under Pennsylvania law, abortions are illegal after 24
weeks of pregnancy, or just under six months, and most doctors won't perform
them after 20 weeks because of the risks, prosecutors said.
In a typical late-term abortion, the fetus is dismembered
in the uterus and then removed in pieces. That is more common than the procedure
opponents call "partial-birth abortion," in which the fetus is
partially extracted before being destroyed. Prosecutors said Gosnell instead
delivered many of the babies alive.
He "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable
babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those
babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their
spinal cord," District Attorney Seth Williams said.
Gosnell referred to it as "snipping,"
prosecutors said.
Prosecutors estimated Gosnell ended hundreds of
pregnancies by cutting the spinal cords, but they said they couldn't prosecute
more cases because he destroyed files.
"These killings became so routine that no one could
put an exact number on them," the grand jury report said. "They were
considered 'standard procedure.'"
Defense attorney William J. Brennan, who represented
Gosnell during the investigation, said: "Obviously, these allegations are
very, very serious."
The grand jury report came out a day after new Republican
Gov. Tom Corbett took office. Spokesman Kevin Harley pledged that Corbett's
administration, through his new health secretary, would do more to oversee such
clinics.
"What needs to be done is regulators, whether on the
local or state or federal level, need to properly regulate, inspect and do
their jobs," Harley said. "The safety of our citizens should be first
and foremost."
Authorities raided Gosnell's clinic early last year in
search of drug violations and stumbled upon "a house of horrors,"
Williams said. Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses "were scattered
throughout the building," the district attorney said. "There were
jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical
purpose."
Prosecutors said the place reeked of cat urine because of
the animals that were allowed to roam freely, furniture and blankets were
stained with blood, instruments were not properly sterilized, and disposable
medical supplies were used over and over.
Gosnell didn't advertise, but word got around. Women came
from across the city, state and region for illegal late-term abortions,
authorities said. They paid $325 for first-trimester abortions and $1,600 to
$3,000 for abortions up to 30 weeks. The clinic took in $10,000 to $15,000 a
day, authorities said.
"People knew near and far that if you needed a
late-term abortion you could go see Dr. Gosnell," Williams said.
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.
Few if any of the sedated patients knew their babies had
been delivered alive and then killed, prosecutors said. Many were first-time
mothers who were told they were 24 weeks pregnant, even if they were much
further along, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Gosnell falsified the ultrasound
examinations that determine how far along a pregnancy is, teaching his staff to
hold the probe in such a way that the fetus would look smaller.
Gosnell sometimes joked about the babies, saying one was
so large he could "walk me to the bus stop," according to the report.
State regulators ignored complaints about Gosnell and the
46 lawsuits filed against him, and made just five annual inspections, most
satisfactory, since the clinic opened in 1979, authorities said. The
inspections stopped completely in 1993 because of what prosecutors said was the
pro-abortion rights attitude that set in after Democratic Gov. Robert Casey, an
abortion foe, left office.
Williams accused state Health Department officials of
"utter disregard" for the safety of women undergoing abortion, and
said the testimony of agency officials "enraged" the grand jury. But
he said he could find no criminal offenses with which they could be charged, in
part because too much time has elapsed.
"These officials were far more protective of
themselves when they testified before the grand jury. Even (Health Department)
lawyers, including the chief counsel, brought private attorneys with them —
presumably at government expense," the report said.
The state's reluctance to investigate, under several
administrations, may stem partly from the sensitivity of the abortion debate,
Williams said. Nonetheless, he called Gosnell's conduct a clear case of murder.
"A doctor who with scissors cuts into the necks,
severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies who would survive with
proper medical attention commits murder under the law," he said.
"Regardless of one's feelings about abortion, whatever one's beliefs, that
is the law."
Four clinic employees were also charged with murder, and
five more, including Gosnell's wife, Pearl, with conspiracy, drug and other
crimes. All were in custody. Gosnell's wife performed extremely late-term abortions
on Sundays, the report said.
One of the murder charges against Gosnell involves a
woman seeking an abortion, Karnamaya Mongar, who authorities said died in 2009
because she was given too much of the painkiller Demerol and other drugs.
Gosnell wasn't at the clinic at the time. His staff
administered the drugs repeatedly as they waited for him to arrive at night, as
was his custom, the grand jury found.
Mongar and her husband, Ash, had fled their native Bhutan
and spent nearly 20 years in camps in Nepal. They had three children. A man who
answered the phone Wednesday at a listing for Ash Mongar in Virginia did not
speak English, while their daughter did not immediately return a message.
The malpractice suits filed against Gosnell include one
over the death of a 22-year-old Philadelphia woman, a mother of two, who died
of a bloodstream infection and a perforated uterus in 2000. Gosnell sometimes
sewed up such injuries without telling the women about the complications,
prosecutors said.
Gosnell earned his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson
University in Philadelphia and is board certified in family practice. He
started, but did not finish, a residency in obstetrics-gynecology, authorities
said.
Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said: "He
does not know how to do an abortion. Once he got them there, he saw dollar
signs and did abortions that other people wouldn't do."