Abortion Practitioner in Frozen Dead Babies Case Has More Violations, Problems
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 26, 2010
Philadelphia, PA (LifeNews.com) — The abortion practitioner who received national attention recently when local officials found dozens of apparently late-term unborn children who were killed in abortions as long as 30 years ago isn’t involved in an isolated case. Pro-life groups say abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell has a long history of problems.
As LifeNews.com reported, the "Little Shop of Horrors" case saw local authorities investigating the Women’s Medical Society abortion business after they learned Gosnell killed a woman in a botched abortion.
Massive amounts of drugs found in the victim’s system led authorities to suspect Gosnell was illegally prescribing pain-killers.
What they found were dozens of unborn children killed in abortions who were frozen for decades.
Now, Operation Rescue spokeswoman Cheryl Sullenger has uncovered more about Gosnell’s past and "deplorable and unsanitary" conditions at his abortion center in eastern Pennsylvania.
"Every time I go to the Internet, I find another horror story about this guy," she told LifeNews.com today. "The story keeps getting worse, as we have found so many times doing our own investigations of abortionists across the nation."
"It is chilling to think of how many abortionists like Gosnell are out there that have not yet been exposed because of a general lack of oversight. The authorities just are not checking up on the abortion industry, unless something really bad happens to surface, as in this case. But what we do hear about is just the tip of the iceberg," Sullenger continued.
Michael Ciccocioppo, executive director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, agreed that more oversight is needed.
“This horrendous tragedy raises numerous questions about the safety of the Women’s Medical Society in Powelton Village,” he told LifeNews.com. “How many women’s lives have been put in jeopardy at this center and at other abortion centers across our state?”
“State authorities have determined that the continued medical practice of Dr. Gosnell would pose an immediate and clear danger to public health and safety. But how long have these threatening conditions existed inside the walls of his abortion center? And how many other Pennsylvania abortionists are violating the law? The women of the Commonwealth deserve answers,” Ciccocioppo said.
Gosnell’s recent troubles began when he killed 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar on November 20, 2009, after she was overdosed on painkillers during an abortion in her 18th or 19th week of pregnancy.
Some of the medication was illegally administered by an unlicensed worker, according to the suspension order that accompanied the recent revocation of his medical license.
Mongar’s brother, Dambher Ghalley, told reporters that Gosnell’s abortion clinic was "dirty and bloody."
But Mongar’s death was not the first for Gosnell, the pro-life advocate informed LifeNews.com.
Semika Shirelle Shaw was killed in March 2000 two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus during an abortion. She developed sepsis and died following the failed abortion leaving two children motherless and a lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount two years later.
Meanwhile, Marie Smith is lucky to be alive after having had a botched abortion Gosnell did on her in 1999, Sullenger indicates.
"She developed a high fever and slipped into unconsciousness a week after her abortion. She was rushed to the hospital where the source of her condition was confirmed.," Sullenger said.
Smith told a reporter: "They showed me X-rays and said he [Gosnell] left an arm and a leg inside me. I almost died. I thought he knew what he was doing, but I guess I was wrong."
Sullenger says the abortion practitioner has had so many problems that Gosnell has been named in over 40 lawsuits in the past twenty years.
One of those suits involved Dana Haynes, who had an abortion by Gosnell in November, 2006. Haynes alleges that Gosnell lacerated her uterus, cervix and her small bowel during the abortion.
And 13-year old Malina Williams says she obtained an abortion by Gosnell without the required parental consent.
The pro-life group says Williams, now 32, told reporters that she could see bottles of jars filled with the remains of "little babies" and that after her abortion "she saw Gosnell cradling a bottle that contained the remains of her fetus."
But Sullenger says the biggest problem in Gosnell’s past is the "super coil fiasco."
"To make a statement about abortion, a California abortion activist named Harvey Karman assembled 15 low-income women in their second trimester of pregnancy, and put them on a bus from Chicago to Philadelphia on Mother’s Day weekend, 1972, where Gosnell would conduct experimental ‘super coil’ abortions on them," she explained.
"Gosnell, who was operating an illegal abortion mill at the time, inserted plastic coils invented by Karman into the uteri of the pregnant women. The experiment went awry, and nine of the fifteen women suffered serious complications, including hemorrhage, infections, retained fetal body parts, a perforated uterus, and one hysterectomy," she added.
Gosnell hoped to revolutionize the process for second-trimester abortions — instead, the botched experiment on unsuspecting women led to a federal investigation that changed the protocols for testing future abortion devices.
"How Gosnell has hung on to his license all these years with his history is a testament to how little abortion clinics are monitored by authorities," said Sullenger. "If abortion clinics were inspected half as often as the local McDonald’s Restaurant, there would be no abortion clinics left open in the U.S. It really is that bad."
Even the National Abortion Federation’s president, Vicki Saporta, has weighed in on Gosnell’s house of horrors.
"There are places that operate in low-income areas and prey on low-income women, students, immigrant populations who may not even know that abortion is legal in this country. Women need to know that there’s no reason, no matter their socioeconomic status, for them not to have access to the highest quality care," she said.
Sullenger says Saporta needs to put her money where her mouth is.
"If Ms. Saporta really believes that, she should close her NAF affiliated abortion clinics immediately," said Sullenger. "NAF clinics are among the worst offenders when it comes to filthy conditions and abortionists who do not keep the law."
"Saporta’s crocodile tears cannot deflect the truth that deplorably filthy abortion clinics run by incompetent abortionists have created a health crisis in this country that is costing the lives and health of women and their pre-born babies," said Sullenger.
Related web sites:
Operation Rescue – https://www.OperationRescue.org
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation – https://www.paprolife.org
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