It’s been 10 years since abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of first-degree murder in the murders of three babies born alive during abortion procedures in his facility. On May 13, 2013, Gosnell, then age 72, was sentenced to two life terms for their deaths as well as up to five years for the death of a woman who died under his care. A decade later, some still deny the brutal realities of abortion.
Gosnell’s crimes and the government’s failures
Former employees of Gosnell testified that nearly full-term babies were born alive and that Gosnell and other staff members cut the backs of their necks with scissors. One witness, Steven Massoff, an unlicensed doctor who worked for Gosnell for more than a decade, testified that the act was “like a beheading.”
Today, Gosnell’s infamous abortion business sits abandoned in West Philadelphia, where FBI agents had discovered “47 aborted fetuses stored in clinic freezers, jars of tiny, severed feet, bloodstained furniture and dirty medical instruments” while raiding the facility in connection with an illegal prescription drug ring. Agents reported “the disgusting conditions, the dazed patients, the discarded fetuses.”
Gosnell’s crimes had gone undetected and ignored for years as the Pennsylvania Department of Health failed to inspect his facility from 1993-2010 (17 years), according to the 2011 grand jury report. And violations that were noted were never resolved or followed up on. Countless complaints regarding the facility were ignored, even after a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told the Department of Health that his patients contracted diseases after going to Gosnell.
Abortion kills a living human
Gosnell’s crimes point out the obvious truth: induced abortion is the direct and intentional killing of living human beings. The only difference between a 30-week baby still inside the womb and a baby born at 30 weeks is location. While the prematurely born baby would receive medical care and killing her would be a crime — killing that same baby prior to delivery is completely legal in U.S. states that have no restrictions on abortion or that allow abortion up to birth under the guise of ‘mother’s health’ or ‘prenatal diagnosis.’ “Health” is a loophole used since Roe and Doe were in effect, which even included financial or familial health.
Even if the mother’s life was at risk, babies 21 weeks and older have a chance of surviving outside the womb when given medical care; therefore, intentionally killing them through induced abortion is clearly not necessary.
Abortion survivors do exist
Though Gosnell was convicted of killing abortion survivors, and other abortionists have admitted that babies can and do survive abortions, abortion advocates continue to claim that abortion survivors are a pro-life “myth.”
The Born-Alive Infant Protection Act that failed to pass in Montana last year would have ensured that survivors like those Gosnell killed receive medical care. But abortionist Daniel Grossman and UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health research Andréa Becker called the bill “inflammatory.” Angry that abortionists could face jail time if they left an abortion survivor to die, they claimed abortion survivors are “an imagined situation” and an “overblown myth.”
Yet, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that over the course of 12 years, more than a hundred infants were reported to have survived for at least a short time following abortions. Minnesota’s most recent abortion report revealed that five children were born alive during abortions in that state in 2021 alone. The report also stated that none of them received medical care — and they died.
Live Action’s Inhuman investigation revealed abortionists and their staffers stating that they make sure abortion survivors do not stay alive. They spoke of denying such babies any medical care and even discussed infanticide. A staffer at Emily’s Women’s Center abortion facility in the Bronx said of abortion survivors:
The solution will make it stop. It’s not going to be moving around in the jar … that’s the whole purpose of the solution. It’ll automatically stop. It won’t be able to… not with the solution…. It won’t be able to breathe anymore….
The abortion industry even has a term for abortion survivors: the “dreaded complication.” One baby’s live birth during an abortion was recorded on a 911 call. And nurses have shared stories of being prohibited from providing care for survivors.
Abortion survivors who are now adults have also shared their stories.
Clearly, surviving an abortion is not a myth.
Abortion advocates want less regulation
Despite the horrors that Gosnell inflicted and the failures of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, abortion advocates want abortion businesses to have lower standards than any other outpatient facilities.
One example is the battle over admitting privileges. In 2014, Democratic Louisiana Senator Katrina Jackson authored a law that would have required abortionists in the state to hold admitting privileges with a hospital within 30 miles of their abortion business. This would allow women injured during an abortion — and women are injured during abortions — to receive timely and appropriate continuity of care at a local emergency room.
Louisiana state law requires that all ambulatory surgical center physicians and other legitimate healthcare professionals hold hospital admitting privileges. In addition, the American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities adopted admitting privileges as a standard of care in order to ensure doctors at these centers have adequate credentials, thereby preventing dangerous doctors from performing surgeries. Abortionists in Louisiana, meanwhile, have been caught using dirty surgical instruments and expired meds, putting their patients in danger.
Despite any of this, when Jackson’s bill became law, the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights, the Hope Medical Group for Women, and two abortionists sued the state of Louisiana to stop it from taking effect — and the Supreme Court struck down the law in 2020.
Abortion regulations are being relaxed
Since Gosnell’s conviction, regulations on abortion have declined. Sixteen states now allow non-physicians to commit abortions, following the decisions of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Montana, and Washington to do so in 2022. It’s speculated that allowing non-doctors to commit abortions stems from a lack of OB/GYNs willing to intentionally kill preborn human beings.
In addition, the abortion pill has become the most common way to kill a preborn child — and abortion advocates have been working successfully to ensure that the abortion pill distribution rules are relaxed.
In 2000, the FDA approved mifepristone in the abortion pill regimen along with the drug misoprostol up to seven weeks of pregnancy. In 2011, following the deaths of several women, the FDA added safety rules, placing the abortion pill under its REMS safety guidelines requiring that it be distributed by a certified prescriber in person. But in 2016, the FDA under the Obama Administration weakened those REMS guidelines and ruled that the manufacturer doesn’t have to report any non-fatal adverse complications. From then on, only abortion pill-related deaths would be reported. The abortion pill’s allowed use was also extended through 10 weeks of pregnancy at this time.
Studies have shown that six percent of women who took the abortion pill required emergency care, but the abortion pill is touted as safe because none of those complications are required to be reported. In addition, abortionists encourage women to lie that they are miscarrying when they go to an emergency room.
In 2020 the abortion industry began a ‘no-test’ abortion pill protocol, removing important testing and blood work that would date the pregnancy and rule out deadly ectopic pregnancies. By April 2021, the Biden administration began allowing the abortion pill to be distributed by mail temporarily amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, by December 2021, the FDA completely eliminated its own in-person requirements, allowing the abortion pill to be shipped by mail. Since then women have come forward to share their at-home abortion pill horror stories, including extreme pain and bleeding and the trauma of birthing and seeing their dead baby.
Yet, in 2023, the Biden FDA announced it would further relax rules and allow retail pharmacies to dispense the abortion pill.
Review the complete abortion pill timeline here.
