Why is Hollywood Afraid of the Kermit Gosnell Movie?

Opinion   |   Andrew Bair   |   Apr 18, 2014   |   9:14AM   |   Washington, DC

Hollywood usually has no qualms about showing graphic violence or making films about human tragedies. The most recent Oscar winner for Best Picture was 12 Years a Slave, a film about the brutal history of slavery in the United States. Other nominated films also covered difficult topics, like Dallas Buyers Club, which covered the AIDS crisis.

But when it comes to the horrific story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, abortionist and convicted murderer, Hollywood steers clear.

Film producers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer have set out on a courageous journey to make a film documenting the unspeakable crimes that took place at Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Center abortion clinic in West Philadelphia. After years of butchering women, unborn babies and newborn infants, Gosnell was finally convicted on three counts of first-degree murder in 2013. The Grand Jury report estimates hundreds of babies were delivered alive and then had their spinal cords “snipped” at the hands of Gosnell. [1]

gosnell55The Gosnell story is one that must be told. It must be told so it never happens again.

The story involves crimes against humanity. Gosnell even joked about one of his victims; “This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.”  His story is built around the exploitation of women, particularly those of lower income. Gosnell could not have done what he did without state negligence, or worse.

The Grand Jury report faulted the pro-abortion politics of Gov. Tom Ridge (R) and, subsequently, Gov. Ed Rendell (D) for essentially eliminating Department of Health inspections of abortion centers. According to the report, “With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be ‘putting a barrier up to women’ seeking abortions.”

Are Hollywood’s pro-abortion leanings to blame for its aversion to a film about Gosnell?

On Fox’s “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld offered this reason for Hollywood’s fear of the Gosnell movie;

“The thing is, I mean, it is a brutal topic. But so is Idi Amin, so is Rwanda, so is the Holocaust. Hollywood has made movies that involved all of those topics. The reason why they don’t do this one is not because the evil is so grotesque. It’s that it’s too close to a moral choice they’ve made. That’s what it’s about. It’s not that like, ah it’s so hard to do something on this man who butchered babies. It’s because it’s too close to the pro-choice mindset.”

The Kermit Gosnell case pulled back the curtain on the reality of abortion. Abortion proponents and their allies in Hollywood do not want to face the simple question, “What is the difference between what happened in Gosnell’s clinic and what other abortionists routinely do to unborn babies?”

A year ago yesterday, reporter Timothy Carney was part of a conference call about Gosnell hosted by pro-abortion blog RH Reality Check. Carney asked, “What is the distinction between what he did, and what a late-term abortionist like, say, LeRoy Carhart does?”

The answer was jarring in its brutality and callousness. “When a procedure that usually involves the collapsing of the skull is done, it’s usually done when the fetus is still in the uterus, not when the fetus has been delivered,” explained Tracy Weitz, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

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The entertainment industry appears to be letting its pro-abortion politics stand in the way of the Gosnell story being told. Ironically, it was that see-no-evil attitude that allowed Gosnell’s killing sprees to continue for so many years in the first place.

Has American learned the lessons of the Gosnell tragedy? Or have we continued business as usual for the abortion industry?

[1] According to the Grand Jury report, “The clinic’s employees used the term ‘snip’ to describe the severing of the spinal cord, but this is misleading. Our neonatal expert testified that, because of the bony vertebrae surrounding the spinal cord, it would actually take a bit of pressure to cut all the way through the spinal cord and the bone – even at 23 or 24 weeks gestation. At 29 weeks, on babies such as Baby Boy A, the expert said, ‘it would be really hard.’ The baby, we were told, would feel ‘tremendous pain.’”