Wife of Abortionist Kermit Gosnell Wants Her Bail Lowered

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 14, 2011   |   1:51PM   |   Philadelphia, PA

The wife of controversial abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, who has been charged with eight counts of murder in connection with killing a woman in a botched abortion and killing babies in infanticides, wants her bail lowered.

Gosnell and several staffers at his abortion center, including his wife Pearl, were arrested in January after a grand jury indicted them on multiple charges after officials raided his abortion business following the woman’s death and discovered a “shop of horrors” filled with bags of bodies and body parts of deceased unborn children and babies killed in infanticides.

Gosnell, who used a method of live birth abortion to birth babies and snap their spinal cords with scissors, was arraigned and held without bail. Pearl Gosnell, Kermit’s 49-year-old wife who also has no medical license, faces a charge of providing an abortion at 24 or more weeks and conspiracy and other charges. Pearl also is in jail currently because she is unable to make a $1 million bail.

Now, Pearl’s attorney has asked a Philadelphia judge to reduce the bail amount so she can be released from prison while the trial on the charges moves ahead. Mary Maran filed a motion to do that and Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner will hold a hearing on Friday on the motion. Maran told the Philly News that she doesn’t know the amount she will ask the judge to remove the bail to from the current high figure.

On Friday, Judge Lerner reduced the bail amount for Gosnell staffer Eileen O’Neil, 54, who was charged with with theft by deception, conspiracy, perjury and false swearing and falsely posed as a doctor at the abortion center. Although she was able to post the new $30,000 bail amount (lowered from $1 million), the judge required her to travel no more than 35 miles away from her home, must check in with the court weekly and is barred from practicing medicine in any way.

The financial status of the Gosnell family has been a subject for the court and the Gosnell’s first asked for a public defender and claimed they were financially destitute, but the court found they had property valued in the millions and were prohibited from using a taxpayer-funded attorney. The Gosnells have been prohibited from liquidating the property and giving away the money or assets to others to avoid a civil lawsuit filed by the family of the woman who died in the botched abortion.

Gosnell himself has pleaded not guilty to the charges and prosecutors have said they will likely pursue the death penalty in the case.

The abortion industry has been forced to suspend two abortion businesses that employed embattled abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, who has been the subject of national controversy over his abortion business in Philadelphia.

Following revelations that Gosnell is associatedwith two other abortion centers in Louisiana and Delaware, the National Abortion Federation made the decision to suspend the memberships of both. Atlantic Women’s Medical Services, the Delaware abortion business that employed Gosnell one day a week to do abortions, and the Delta Clinic abortion center of Baton Rouge, have both had their memberships suspended. Leroy Brinkley owns both abortion businesses. Atlantic operates abortion centers in Wilmington and Dover.

Delaware law does not require inspections of abortion centers but Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said his office will launch a “wide-ranging” investigation of Gosnell and probe his work at the Delaware abortion facility given the vast problems at his Pennsylvania abortion center.

Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder and several of his staff at the abortion center, including his wife and sister-in-law, have been charged as well in the case with assisting in botched abortions, practicing medicine without a license or covering up the actions of those who did. The counts include grisly infanticides that involved Gosnell snipping the spines with scissors of babies who had purposefully been prematurely born so they could be killed moments later.

Gosnell has been denied bail while the case against him moves forward. Women have spoken out about their treatment and one woman says she was drugged and tied up and forced to have an abortion.

Authorities searching the facility last year found bags and bottles holding aborted babies scattered around the building, jars containing babies’ severed feet lining a shelf, as well as filthy, unsanitary furniture and equipment.

The grand jury investigation also shows state officials did nothingwhen reports came in about problems at Gosnell’s abortion center, which has upset incoming pro-life Governor Tom Corbett who fired several state employees.