Kermit Gosnell

Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American doctor in Philadelphia who ran two multi-million dollar abortion practices. After a controversy nearly a year earlier, Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, charged with eight counts of murder: one patient who died under his care after a botched abortion, and seven infants born alive whose spinal cords Gosnell allegedly severed with scissors. A grand jury recommended charges of murder against Gosnell and several of his employees. CNN stated in March 2011 that prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty. The trial began on March 18, 2013.

History
According to press reports, Gosnell graduated from the Jefferson Medical School in 1966, and in 1972 set up a practice on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. The reports say he was well known for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women. He allegedly employed his wife, Pearl, at his abortion clinic, who has also been arrested. State officials have failed to visit or inspect his abortion clinic since 1993. It is claimed that Gosnell charged $1,600-$3,000 for each late-term abortion. Prosecutors also claim that Gosnell is not certified in either gynecology or obstetrics. The FBI and DEA raided his office in February 2010 and word quickly circulated about the poor and unsanitary conditions inside the building.

On January 31, 1998, a then 15 year old Robyn Reid in the company of her grandmother sought an abortion from Gosnell's clinic - a triangle shaped building in West Philadelphia called Women's Medical Society. Once she was in the clinic, though, Reid, an 87-pound teenager at the time, told Gosnell she changed her mind about the abortion.

Gosnell got upset, ripped off Reid's clothes, and restrained the girl. Reid said that Gosnell repeatedly told her, "This is the same care that I would give to my own daughter." Reid regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt's home, with the abortion having been completed against her will.

Gosnell was not able to complete an abortion for Dana Haynes, but then waited hours to call paramedics after it was apparent she needed help. "I couldn't believe that a doctor would have done this to me," Haynes said. "I really felt like he was going to let me die." Haynes filed a civil lawsuit against Gosnell but the lawsuit was dismissed because Haynes missed a deadline.

A judge awarded another Gosnell patient after court found that Gosnell performed an abortion on a fifteen-year-old without parental permission.

The states of Pennsylvania and New York disciplined Gosnell's practice of medicine.

In 2001, Nicole Gaither, approximately 28 years old, sought her first and only abortion from Gosnell after five months of pregnancy. Returning to Gosnell, Gaither complained of excruciating pain. "When I finally went back to work I could barely sit down at the stool, the pain started to get worse."

Gosnell performed an ultrasound on Gaither and discovered he left fetal remains inside her womb. Without anesthesia, Gosnell sucked the fetal remains out of her. "I was just laying on the table and crying and I just asked the lord to get me through it."

The grand jury report noted, the medical examiner of Delaware County alerted the Pennsylvania Department of Health that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old who was thirty weeks pregnant.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health did nothing when they became aware Karnamaya Mongar’s death at Gosnell’s hands.

Brenda Green, executive director of CHOICE, a nonprofit that connects the underinsured and uninsured with health services, told Katha Pollitt of the Nation that "it tried to report complaints from clients, but the department wouldn’t accept them from a third party. Instead, the patients had to fill out a daunting five-page form, available only in English, that required them to reveal their identities upfront and be available to testify in Harrisburg. Even with CHOICE staffers there to help, only two women agreed to fill out the form, and both decided not to submit it. The Department of State and the Philadelphia Public Health Department also had ample warning of dire conditions and took no action."

Gosnell's case is headed for trial. Former Philadelphia city prosecutor Jack McMahon represents Gosnell and his wife. "Everybody's made him the butcher, this, that and the other thing without any trial, without anything being exposed to the public and everybody's found him guilty, that's not right," said McMahon.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Inspector General sought 23-count indictment charging a total of eight defendants, Gosnell and members of his former staff, in a drug conspiracy case. Gosnell is charged with illegally prescribing highly-addictive painkillers and sedatives outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

His former office staff at Family and Women’s Medical Society (WMS), ran a prescription “pill mill.” From June 2008 through February 18, 2010, Gosnell allegedly engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise by writing and dispensing fraudulent prescriptions for thousands of pills of the frequently-abused tablets OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax, and the frequently-abused syrups Phenergan and Promethazine with Codeine. Authorities further allege that Gosnell and his staff allowed customers to purchase multiple prescriptions under multiple names. For the first office visit, Gosnell allegedly charged $115.00 but that increased around December 2009 when he allegedly increased the initial office visit fee to $150.00.

Staff at the clinic went from writing several hundred prescriptions for controlled substances per month filled at pharmacies in 2008 to over 2,300 filled at pharmacies in January 2010. Gosnell, with the assistance of his staff, distributed and dispensed more than 500,000 pills containing oxycodone, more than 400,000 pills containing alprazolam, and more than 19,000 ounces of cough syrup containing codeine.

Arrest and alleged malpractice
Gosnell was arrested on January 19, 2011 and charged with eight counts of murder. Prosecutors allege that he killed seven babies born alive by severing their spinal cords with scissors, and that he was also responsible for the death of a woman, Karnamaya Mongar who died in his care after a botched abortion. Gosnell's wife, Pearl Gosnell and eight other suspects were also arrested in connection with the case.

Trial
On March 18, 2013, opening statements were given in a Philadelphia court. Gosnell is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder as well as multiple counts of conspiracy, criminal solicitation and violation of a state law that forbids abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy.

Reactions
Gosnell's arrest has been the subject of much public comment:


 * District Attorney of the city of Philadelphia R. Seth Williams "My comprehension of the English language can't adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell. . . Pennsylvania is not a third-world country, . . . There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago."  Bags and bottles of aborted fetuses "were scattered throughout the building . . . There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose."
 * Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) criticized Department of Health officials saying; "I was flabbergasted to learn that the Department of Health did not think their authority to protect public health extended to clinics offering abortion services".
 * Incoming Governor Tom Corbett (R-PA) was disappointed that Pennsylvania Department of Health officials had done such a poor job of inspecting abortion facilities, saying through a spokesperson that he was; "appalled at the inaction on the part of the Health Department and the Department of State."
 * Mayor Michael Nutter (D-Philadelphia) said; "I think it's quite clear that, if these allegations are true, we've had a monster living in our midst" while vowing to watch the city's remaining abortion clinics more closely.
 * Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D-Delaware) promised a wide-ranging investigations into the abortions Gosnell performed in Delaware saying; "I'm disturbed by the allegations that were handed up by the grand jury in Philadelphia".
 * Vicki Saporta, speaking for the National Abortion Federation, an association of abortion providers, pointed out that Gosnell had been denied membership in the association because his facility did not meet appropriate standards of care, and commented, "Unfortunately, some women don't know where to turn. You sometimes have substandard providers preying on low-income women who don't know that they do have other (safe) options." Saporta also said, “What we saw didn’t meet our standards, but they’d cleaned the place up and hired an RN for our visit. We only saw first-trimester procedures.”
 * Dayle Steinberg, of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, condemned Gosnell, saying, "We would condemn any physician who does not follow the law or endangers anyone’s health...All women should have access to high-quality care when they are vulnerable and facing difficult decisions."
 * Former Governor Tom Ridge (Republican) has refused to comment on the matter.  It was his administration that ended regular inspections of abortion clinics—a policy that continued until the Gosnell incident.  The grand jury report stated that according to officials inspections would be "putting a barrier up to women" seeking abortions. "Warnings--from patients and their attorneys, a doctor at a Philadelphia hospital, women's health groups, pro-choice groups, and even an employee of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health--failed to prompt state and local authorities to investigate or take action against the clinic. "
 * Kermit Gosnell gave an interview to Fox 29's Thomas Drayton :
 * "I expect to be vindicated."
 * [Regarding the allegations] "to tell you the truth, I hope to read them in 3 to 6 months [...] because I have lived through negative publicity before."
 * "It's something I have personally experienced several times before where my surgical abilities have been challenged, where the choices that I have made have not always been perfect."
 * "If you are not making mistakes, you are not really attempting to do something, so I think that my patients are aware that I do my very best by them."
 * "The standard that I share with everyone that, I frequently say is that I provide the same care that I would provide my own daughter I feel."
 * "I have a story to tell. [...] Thomas, my work to the community is of value."
 * Gosnell reported that he received outpouring of support: "letters, I have gotten wonderful little messages of support, and confidence that I am a good person will prevail"