Most of the focus in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell is on the murder charges he faces for killing babies in abortion-infanticides and for killing a woman in a botched abortion.
But Gosnell faces more than 200 charges related to violating Pennsylvania state law that requires him to provide women with informed consent 24 hours prior to the abortion. Gosnell is charged with breaking that law by not giving women information about abortion risks and alternatives 24 hours prior to the abortion.
As local reporter J.D. Mullane reported this morning, the Gosnell jury asked for patient information related to one patient who testified that Gosnell broke that law.
#Gosnell jury deliberates more than 3 hrs; requests files for patient Lisa Dungee, employee Della Mann, and a floor diagram of clinic.
— jdmullane (@jdmullane) May 1, 2013
Lisa Dungee was a patient at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society in 2009. She saw unlicensed medical school graduate Eileen O’Neill, who is also standing trial along with her former boss, for an early non-surgical abortion. Dungee testified that she never received counseling prior to her abortion. She admitted that she signed a form indicating that she had been given informed consent 24 hours prior to the abortion, but was adamant that she signed the forms on the same day her abortion began.
“When I came in to the facility, I already had my mind made up about what I wanted to do, so yes, I signed it,” she testified.
Lack adherence to waiting periods and informed consent laws are common complaints of women receiving abortions at clinics around the country. Operation Rescue has documented a numerous of incidents of this kind in several states, including Louisiana, Texas, and a particularly harrowing incident in Michigan where a teen was tricked into an abortion when she thought she was being seen for an obstetrical visit for a wanted pregnancy.
“We see over and over that abortion clinics fail to provide adequate counseling, or deny women information that could cause them to reach a different decision about their pregnancies. In some cases, abortions have been forced on women who did not consent,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “In this respect, Gosnell’s clinic acted no differently than hundreds of other abortion clinics around the country. Authorities rarely discipline or prosecute on violations of informed consent laws, so abortionists have no incentive to abide by them. This is a problem that is rampant in the abortion cartel.”
Dungee testified that she thought O’Neill was a licensed physician because she wore a white coat and had certificates on the wall of her office. No one ever told her that O’Neill held no valid medical license.
According to Dungee, O’Neill gave her one pill to take at the clinic and one pill to take later at home along with a prescription for antibiotics. She said she never saw Gosnell at the clinic, who should have been consulted before drugs were prescribed.
Dungee never returned to O’Neill for her follow-up appointment due to the filthy conditions at the clinic. Instead she saw her own physician for follow-up care. Dungee insisted under oath that O’Neill nor anyone else from the clinic, called to see how she was doing, even though O’Neill noted in the records that such a follow-up call had been placed.
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“The unlicensed practice of medicine, unqualified staff, failure to provide follow-up care, and falsification of medical records are accusations that are certainly not new to the abortion industry,” said Newman. “We have piles of documentation on each of these abuses.”
Another point of interest in Dungee’s testimony was introduced by O’Neill’s defense attorney, James Berardinelli, who has thus far had few, if any, questions for prosecution witnesses. Berardinelli insisted that since Dungee did not actually expel her four-week baby until 24 hours after she took the first abortion pill, then the 24-hour waiting period had been observed.
“This bizarre theory turns the intent of such laws on its head and shows gross ignorance about how medication abortions work,” said Newman. “The first round pills actually block hormones to trick the body into thinking it is no longer pregnant, and the second round of pills induces contractions that expel the baby. The abortion begins when the first pill is taken, and to say otherwise just isn’t true,” said Newman. “It appears that misdirection and redefinition may be the only defense O’Neill and Gosnell have.”
