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American serial killer (born 1941) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kermit Barron Gosnell (born February 9, 1941) is an American serial killer and former abortion doctor. He provided illegal late-term abortions at his clinic in West Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce labor, the manslaughter of one woman during an abortion procedure, and of several other abortion- and drug-related crimes.[3][4][5][6][7] Staff at Gosnell's clinic testified that there were hundreds of infants born alive during abortion procedures, and subsequently killed by Gosnell.[8][9][10][11]
Kermit Gosnell | |
|---|---|
Gosnell's booking photo in 2011 | |
| Born | Kermit Barron Gosnell February 9, 1941 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
| Spouse | Pearl Gosnell[1] |
| Children | 6 |
| Conviction(s) | Federal Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (21 U.S.C. § 846) Distribution of controlled substances (21 U.S.C. § 841) (10 counts) Maintaining a place for the illegal distribution of controlled substances (21 U.S.C. § 856) Pennsylvania First degree murder (3 counts) Involuntary manslaughter Performing an illegal late-term abortion (21 counts) Violating the 24-hour informed consent law (211 counts) |
| Criminal penalty | Federal 30 years imprisonment Pennsylvania Three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole |
| Details | |
| Victims | 48+[2] |
Span of crimes | 2006–2010 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Pennsylvania |
Date apprehended | January 19, 2011 |
| Imprisoned at | SCI Huntingdon |
Gosnell, based in the Mantua neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned and operated the Women's Medical Society Clinic, a non-compliant abortion clinic that was dubbed a "house of horrors" during his criminal trial.[12] In a 2010 raid, authorities found the intact human remains of 47 victims stored in bags and cartons, numerous of which were suspected and later confirmed to be victims of infanticide.[13][14][15] In 2011, Gosnell, his wife Pearl, and eight employees were charged with a total of 32 felonies and 227 misdemeanors in connection with numerous deaths, illegal abortion procedures, and regulatory violations. Gosnell was also a prolific prescriber of numerous controlled substances, including OxyContin.[16] Pearl and the eight employees pleaded guilty to various charges in 2011, whilst Gosnell pleaded not guilty and sought a jury trial.[17]
In May 2013, Gosnell was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, an adult patient at the clinic who died following an abortion procedure. Gosnell was also convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion and 211 counts of violating Pennsylvania's 24-hour informed consent law. After his conviction, Gosnell waived his right to appeal in exchange for an agreement by prosecutors not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[18][19] Gosnell was sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison for federal drug charges.[20] Gosnell is currently incarcerated at SCI Huntingdon.
Gosnell was born on February 9, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the only child of a gas station operator and a government clerk.[21][22] He was a student at the city's Central High School, from which he graduated in 1959.[23][24] Gosnell initially attended the University of Pennsylvania,[25] and then graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor's degree.[26] He received his medical degree at the Thomas Jefferson University in 1966.[23]
It has been reported that Gosnell spent four decades practicing medicine among the poor, including a teen-aid program and opening the Mantua Halfway House, a rehab clinic for drug addicts in the impoverished Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia.[23] He became an early proponent of abortion rights in the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1972, he returned from a stint in New York City to open up an abortion clinic on Lancaster Avenue in Mantua.[21][27] Gosnell told The Philadelphia Inquirer in October 1972: "As a physician, I am very concerned about the sanctity of life. But it is for this precise reason that I provide abortions for women who want and need them."[28]
That same year, Gosnell also performed fifteen televised second-trimester abortions, using an experimental and dangerous "Super Coil" method invented by Harvey Karman. This event came to be known as the "Mother's Day Massacre of 1972."[29] The device, an untested plastic ball with razor blades, was inserted into the mother's uterus to chop up and expel the fetus.[29] The device caused severe lacerations, infection, and bleeding to the women. Complications from the procedure were reported by nine of the women, with three of them reporting life-threatening complications.[30][31] One woman had to receive a hysterectomy.[29]
The 1972 Inquirer article also said that Gosnell was a "respected man" in his community, and a finalist for the Junior Chamber of Commerce's "Young Philadelphian of the Year" because of his work directing the Mantua Halfway House.[28] By the late 1980s, however, public records showed state tax liens were piling up against the halfway house, and the abortion clinic had a $41,000 federal tax lien.[28]
Gosnell has been married three times. His third and current wife, Pearl, had worked at the Women's Medical Society as a full-time medical assistant from 1982 until their marriage in 1990.[1] They have two children.[32] Gosnell has four other children from his two previous marriages.[32] In covering his background, media commentators drew attention to the "incredibly diverse" portrayals of Gosnell, touching on both his community works – the creation of the halfway house and teen aid program – contrasted with portrayals of his practice as an abortion mill in which viable fetuses and babies were routinely killed following illegal late-term procedures.[23]
In 2011, Gosnell was reported to be well known in Philadelphia for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women.[34] Gosnell has been heavily criticized for racism on the basis that he separated white women from black women, giving white women a slightly cleaner room for their abortion procedures.[35][9] It was also claimed that he charged $1,600 – 3,000 for each late-term abortion, and had made $10,000 –15,000 per day from the clinic.[36][37]
Gosnell was also associated with clinics in Delaware and Louisiana. Atlantic Women's Services in Wilmington, Delaware, was Gosnell's place of work for one day each week. The owner of Atlantic Women's Services, Leroy Brinkley, also owned Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and facilitated the hiring of staff from there for Gosnell's operation in Philadelphia.[38]
In total, 46 known lawsuits were filed against Gosnell over some 32 years of his career.[45] Observers claimed that there was a complete failure by Pennsylvania regulators who had overlooked other repeated concerns brought to their attention, including lack of trained staff, "barbaric" conditions, and a high level of illegal late-term abortions.[46]
Gosnell's clinic, the Women's Medical Society, was raided on February 18, 2010, under a search warrant by investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pennsylvania State Police. The raid was the result of a months-long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Philadelphia Police Department, and the state's Dangerous Drug-Offender Unit into suspected illegal drug prescription use at the practice. The investigation had also revealed the suspicious 2009 death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old refugee from Bhutan, which had in turn brought to light further information about unsanitary operations, use of untrained staff (including teenagers), and use of powerful drugs without proper medical supervision and control. Thus, when the February 2010 raid took place, staff from Pennsylvania's departments of state and health also attended, as these issues were under their remit:[47]
When the team members entered the clinic, they were appalled, describing it to the Grand Jury as 'filthy,' 'deplorable,' 'disgusting,' 'very unsanitary, very outdated, horrendous,' and 'by far, the worst' that these experienced investigators had ever encountered. There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea-infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets. All the women had been sedated by unlicensed staff— long before Gosnell arrived at the clinic— and staff members could not accurately state what medications or dosages they had administered to the waiting patients. Many of the medications in inventory were past their expiration dates… surgical procedure rooms were filthy and unsanitary… resembling 'a bad gas station restroom.' Instruments were not sterile. Equipment was rusty and outdated. Oxygen equipment was covered with dust, and had not been inspected. The same corroded suction tubing used for abortions was the only tubing available for oral airways if assistance for breathing was needed…[50] [F]etal remains [were] haphazardly stored throughout the clinic– in bags, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, and even in cat-food containers... Gosnell admitted to Detective Wood that at least 10 to 20 percent... were probably older than 24 weeks [the legal limit]... In some instances, surgical incisions had been made at the base of the fetal skulls. The investigators found a row of jars containing just the severed feet of fetuses. In the basement, they discovered medical waste piled high. The intact 19-week fetus delivered by Mrs. Mongar three months earlier was in a freezer. In all, the remains of 45 fetuses were recovered ... at least two of them, and probably three, had been viable."[50]
Gosnell's license to practice was suspended on February 22, 2010,[51] and a plethora of findings was presented to a grand jury on May 4, 2010. Public discussion focused on claims of unsanitary conditions and other unacceptable conditions at the practices. Media reports stated that furniture and blankets were stained with blood, that freely roaming cats defecated wherever they pleased, and that non-sterilized equipment was used and reused on patients.[52][53][54] According to the grand jury report, patients were given labor-inducing drugs by staff who had no medical training. Once labor began, the patient would be placed on a toilet. After the fetus fell into the toilet, it would be fished out so as not to clog the plumbing. In the recovery room, patients were seated on dirty recliners covered in blood-stained blankets.[55] Prosecutors alleged that Gosnell had not been certified in either gynecology or obstetrics.[45] The grand jury estimated that his practice "took in $10,000 to $15,000 a night" of additional income from his exceedingly high level of prescriptions.[56]
Gosnell was arrested on January 19, 2011, five days after the certification of the grand jury's report. He was charged with eight counts of murder.[57] Prosecutors alleged that he killed seven babies born alive by severing their spinal cords with scissors, and that he was also responsible for the death in 2009 of Karnamaya Mongar.[58] Gosnell's wife, Pearl, and eight other suspects were also arrested in connection with the case.[1][58][59] The DEA, the FBI, and the Office of the Inspector General also sought a 23-count indictment charging Gosnell and seven members of his former staff with drug conspiracy relating to the practice's illegal prescriptions of highly addictive painkillers and sedatives outside of the usual course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose.
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania also alleged that Gosnell's former office staff at Women's Medical Society 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 alleged that Gosnell and his staff allowed customers to purchase multiple prescriptions under multiple names. For the first office visit, Gosnell allegedly charged $115, but around December 2009 he allegedly increased the initial office visit fee to $150. 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, is said to have 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.[66]
Gosnell's lawyer stated that, "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".[67] He accused the government of a "lynching" and stated, "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give [back] to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia."[61] Following his arrest, Gosnell claimed, "I'm very close to being destitute". However, this statement is contradicted by records showing that he and his wife owned at least seventeen properties across four states, including a million dollar house in Brigantine, New Jersey.[68]
Examples of other cases cited in the media include:
Reports stated that state officials had failed to visit or inspect Gosnell's practices since 1993.[59] The grand jury report noted that 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;[71] it is also claimed the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not act when they became aware of Gosnell's involvement in the death of Karnamaya Mongar.[71]
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."[71]
In 2011, it was reported that none of Pennsylvania's 22 abortion clinics had been inspected by the government for more than fifteen years.[72] Inspections (other than those triggered by complaints) had ceased under the governorship of Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, as they were perceived to create a barrier to women seeking abortion services.[73]
The grand jury published its 280-page report in January 2011. It stated that, while some might see the issue and case through the lens of pro- and anti-abortion politics, it was in reality:
not about that controversy; it is about disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of mothers and infants. We find common ground in exposing what happened here, and in recommending measures to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.[74]
The grand jury concluded that the practice was a corrupt organization within the meaning of racketeering law, based upon what it considered evidence of deliberate "standard" use of "bogus" doctors, falsification of records, grossly unprofessional procedures with little or no regard for human life, and flagrant disregard for medical and abortion laws and their consequences. Key findings included:
The report divided offenses by Gosnell and other practice employees into three categories: "charges arising from the baby murders and illegal abortions; charges in connection with the death of Karnamaya Mongar; and charges stemming generally from the ongoing operation of a criminal enterprise". The charges recommended were:[101]
We believe, given the manner in which Gosnell operated, that he killed the vast majority of babies that he aborted after 24 weeks. We cannot, however, recommend murder charges for all of these cases. In order to constitute murder, the act must involve a baby who was born alive. Because files were falsified or removed from the facility and possibly destroyed, we cannot substantiate all of the individual cases in which charges might otherwise have resulted.[90]
The report also examined the failings of official parties, and the key findings, analyzed in two categories:[106]
Janice Staloski of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, who personally participated in the 1992 site visit, but decided to let Gosnell slide on the violations that were already evident then. She eventually rose to become director of the division that was supposed to regulate abortion providers, but never looked at Gosnell despite specific complaints from lawyers, a doctor, and a medical examiner. After she was nonetheless promoted, her successor as division director, Cynthia Boyne, failed to order an investigation of the clinic even when Karnamaya Mongar died there. Senior legal counsel Kenneth Brody insisted that the department had no legal obligation to monitor abortion clinics, even though it exercised such a duty until the Ridge administration, and exercised it again as soon as Gosnell became big news. The agency's head lawyer, chief counsel Christine Dutton, defended the department's indifference: 'People die,' she said. Lawyers at the Pennsylvania Department of State behaved in the same fashion. Attorneys Mark Greenwald, Charles Hartwell, David Grubb, Andrew Kramer, William Newport, Juan Ruiz, and Kerry Maloney were confronted with a growing pile of disquieting facts about Gosnell, including a detailed, inside account from a former employee (Marcella Choung, 2001[107]), and a 22-year-old dead woman. Every time, though, they managed to dismiss the evidence as immaterial... until the facts hit the fan.
Statutory changes are necessary as well. Infanticide and third-trimester abortion are serious crimes. The two-year statute of limitations currently applicable for these offenses is inadequate to their severity. The limitations period for late abortion should be extended to five years; infanticide, like homicide, should have none. Impersonating a physician is also a serious, and potentially very dangerous, act. Yet under current law it is not a crime at all. An appropriate criminal provision should be enacted. There may also be other statutory and regulatory revisions that we, as lay people, have not thought to consider. Legislative hearings may be appropriate to further examine these issues.[109]
In 2011, Gosnell, his wife Pearl, and eight other clinic employees were charged in the case.[110] Eight, including Gosnell's wife, subsequently pleaded guilty, most of whom would testify against Gosnell,[111] and three of these pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, carrying a 20- to 40-year term.[111] A gag order was imposed on both defense and prosecution in April 2011 to bar them from talking to the media before the trial.[112] In December 2011, Pearl pleaded guilty to performing illegal abortions, conspiracy, criminal conspiracy and corrupt organization;[113] due to spousal privilege, she would not have to testify against Gosnell, although she could still go to prison.[110] Pearl had testified to the grand jury that she alone assisted on Sundays, and that her role was to "help do the instruments" in the procedure room and to monitor patients in the recovery room. Another employee testified that she assisted with late-term abortions "on Sundays or days we were closed [to] do special cases."[114]
As a result, the only employee to go on trial with Gosnell was Eileen O'Neill, who allegedly held herself out as a doctor at the clinic when she was not licensed. Her lawyer told jurors she never did so, and performed medical duties only under Gosnell's orders.[61]
On March 18, 2013, opening statements were given in a Philadelphia court. On April 23, after the prosecution had rested its case, the judge dismissed three of the seven first-degree murder charges (the next day the judge reinstated charges related to one and dismissed another, explaining the wrong charge had been mistakenly dismissed[115][116]), the one count of infanticide, and all five charges of abusing a corpse Gosnell had been charged with, as well as six of the nine charges of theft by deception faced by O'Neill.[117] No formal ruling has yet been given for these dismissals. Media sources following the trial have suggested that there may have been insufficient evidence of post-procedure life to sustain charges in law. Although prosecutors had argued the movements were voluntary and therefore signs of life,[118][119] it was argued that the evidence offered by prosecutors was equally capable of being interpreted in some or all of these as single autonomous post-mortem motor movements or spasms instead of clinical signs of life, and additionally that none of the seven were capable of being alive as all had been previously killed clinically in utero by means of drugs as part of the procedure.[118][119] Also, although staff had used descriptions such as "jumping" and "screaming" in their testimony, Gosnell's defense noted that testimony had shown only single movements or breaths, stating that the testimony was not evidence of "the movements of a live child", and the medical examiner had also testified that tests could not determine whether or not any of the 47 fetuses found had been born alive due to tissue deterioration.[120]
The remaining four first-degree murder charges could still have led to the death penalty. The third-degree murder charges in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, the racketeering charge, and over 200 charges related to multiple violations of abortion law were also left standing.[121][122] Gosnell's defense attorney rested his case summarily without calling or questioning any witnesses, and without Gosnell taking the stand in his defense, leaving the defense case until final arguments (under US law, a defendant may choose not to take the stand; if so then the jury is instructed that no inference or assumption may be drawn from this).[123] O'Neill also did not testify in her defense.[115][123] The case went to jury deliberation on April 30, 2013.[124]
Gosnell was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder (reduced to four counts at trial) and one count of third-degree murder, as well as infanticide (dismissed at trial), five counts of abusing a corpse (all dismissed at trial), multiple counts of conspiracy, criminal solicitation, and violation of a state law that forbids abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy.[117][122][125] The non-murder charges included 24 counts of violating Pennsylvania's Abortion Act by performing illegal third-trimester abortions, 227 counts of violating a 24-hour waiting-period requirement, failing to counsel patients, and racketeering.[122] His co-defendants were:
On May 13, 2013, the jury reported that they were deadlocked on two counts.[137] After returning to deliberations, the jury convicted Gosnell of three counts of murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and over 200 lesser counts including infanticide and racketeering.[138] He was found not guilty on one of the counts of murder.[139][140] The murder charges Gosnell was convicted of concerned babies referred to as Baby Boy A (also known as Baby Abrams and as Adam), Baby C and Baby D.[141][142]
On May 14, 2013, Gosnell struck a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to waive all his appeal rights regarding his conviction on the day earlier. In exchange, prosecutors allowed Gosnell to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[143] The following day, Gosnell was sentenced to three life terms.[144]
In December 2013, Gosnell was convicted of illegally distributing painkillers. He was charged with illegally distributing a "staggering" amount of painkillers such as Oxycontin, totaling hundreds of thousands of pills. Many of the drugs he distributed were later sold on the streets by drug dealers. Gosnell was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for the crimes.[146]
The family of Karnamaya Mongar brought a wrongful death suit against Gosnell and sought to freeze his assets to prevent him from transferring them to other people to avoid paying.[147][148] In September 2015, a judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas court awarded nearly $4 million in compensatory damages to Mongar's daughter, Yashoda Devi Gurung. However, reports that Gosnell had few assets by this time made it doubtful whether any of the money would be paid.[149]
In April 2011 the University of Pennsylvania Health System claimed as early as 1999 that they had provided to authorities reports about botched procedures by Gosnell. The only case for which any reports were produced was that of Semika Shaw, a 22-year-old, who died at the University of Pennsylvania hospital as a result of bleeding and sepsis caused by a botched procedure by Gosnell. Gosnell's insurers settled a lawsuit with family members of Shaw for $900,000. The health system also claims other undocumented reports were made orally, for which they did not have records.[150]
The Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee of the Pennsylvania State Senate, led by Robert M. Tomlinson, began a hearing in February 2011 to look into the failure of the Pennsylvania Department of State — which is responsible for licensing doctors — to provide any oversight of Gosnell's activities. At the same time, the Public Health and Welfare Committee of the state Senate, chaired by Pat Vance, conducted hearings on the Pennsylvania State Health Department's failure to put a stop to Gosnell's activities.[151]
In part as a result of the grand jury report on Gosnell, in late 2011, Pennsylvania passed a law, SB 732, that places abortion clinics under the same health and safety regulations as other outpatient surgical centers. Among those who supported the bill was Democrat Margo L. Davidson, whose cousin Semika Shaw died as a result of procedures done by Gosnell.[152][153] Davidson specifically linked her support for the additional regulations to her cousin's death, which she attributed to poor medical practices.[154]
In May 2013, as a result of the Kermit Gosnell case, Representative Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), chair of the health-matters subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, began an inquiry into states' oversight of abortion clinics.[155]
In June 2013, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Speaker of the House John Boehner said the bill was in response to Gosnell's convictions. The legislation was viewed as mostly symbolic, as it stood little chance of being approved by the Democratic-led U.S. Senate.[needs update][156][157][158]
In February 2011, Governor Tom Corbett fired six employees and commenced action to fire eight others where for legal or contractual reasons, more extensive dismissal procedures were required. These included Basil Merenda, the acting head of the Pennsylvania Department of State; Christine Dutton, the Department of Health's chief counsel (who, in reaction to being questioned why the department did not react to a death at Gosnell's clinic, said "people die"); and Stacy Mitchell, a deputy secretary in the health department (whom the grand jury cited as a key figure in the Health Department's indifference to, and non-regulation of, abortion clinics). Some of the people most connected by the grand jury report with the failure of the government to act, such as Janice Staloski, had retired by this point and so no action was taken against them.[159]
The remains of the 47 fetuses and infants found at Gosnell's clinic were buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, though no headstone was used. In 2019, John and Loida McKeever installed a small memorial at the site, a statue of an angel. A sign around its neck reads: "In memory of the babies that were lost at 3801 Lancaster Avenue".[160]
Gosnell's arrest has been the subject of much public comment[161] and expressions of condemnation and shock by senior public figures of all parties. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D-PA) 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.[162] 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",[163] while incoming Governor Tom Corbett (R-PA) stated through a spokesperson that he was "appalled at the inaction on the part of the Health Department and the Department of State,"[164] and Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams said, "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."[165]
Gosnell also practiced in other states, including Delaware. In January 2011, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D-Delaware) promised a wide-ranging investigation into the abortions Gosnell performed in Delaware saying; "I'm disturbed by the allegations that were handed up by the grand jury in Philadelphia".[166]
Vicki Saporta, President of the National Abortion Federation, defended the organization's failure to report by noting that although Gosnell had been rejected for membership following inspection, because his clinics did not meet appropriate standards of care "they'd cleaned the place up and hired an RN [registered nurse] for our visit. We only saw first-trimester procedures."[71] She added that, "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."[167] A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood in 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."[168] Dayle Steinberg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, says she knew that Gosnell had provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, but says she hadn't heard of any problems at his clinic until the allegations surfaced.[169] She has been quoted as stating that "when Gosnell was in practice, women would sometimes come to Planned Parenthood for services after first visiting Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, and would complain to staff about the conditions there. We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health."[170] She clarified that "when Gosnell was arrested, I asked our staff if anyone had ever heard of him, and clinic staff members reported that a few women over the years said they were concerned about the uncleanliness of his facility and came to Planned Parenthood instead [...] if we had heard anything remotely like the conditions that have since come to light about Gosnell's facility, of course we would have alerted the state and other authorities".[171]
Kermit Gosnell himself gave an interview to Fox affiliate WTXF-TV in February 2011,[69] in which he stated that:
A perception had built up among some journalists and anti-abortion groups that there had been a reluctance to report on the trial among mainstream media. In an April 11, 2013, opinion column for USA Today, Kirsten Powers wrote: "A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months", and that national press coverage was represented by a Wall Street Journal columnist who "hijacked" a segment on Meet the Press, a single page A-17 story on the first day of the trial by The New York Times, and no original coverage by The Washington Post.[172] While Powers is credited by some for drawing media coverage to the Gosnell trial, Dave Weigel at Slate.com reported it was conservatives' aggressive use of social media, especially Twitter, that "goaded" the press into covering the trial. According to Weigel, Troy Newman, president of the Kansas-based anti-abortion Operation Rescue, had organized a Twitter campaign using "#Gosnell" to break the "Gosnell Media Blackout."
Key to that social media campaign was a picture of rows of empty media seats in the Gosnell courtroom taken by Calkins Media columnist J.D. Mullane.[173] Mullane told Weigel he was struck by the absence of media at the trial, and took out his iPhone and snapped the picture, tweeting it later that night. "Mullane retweeted the photo a few more times, with different captions, because it had been packed into a snowball (of criticism)" which included Powers' column for USA Today, Weigel wrote. The empty seats photograph was used by anti-abortion activists to show "proof" of media dereliction. Weigel wrote: "It worked. An estimated 106,000 #Gosnell tweets later, on April 15, Mullane reported that major networks and newspapers had sent their reporters to cover the trial—Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post."
Writing for The Washington Post, Melinda Henneberger responded that "we didn't write more because the only abortion story most outlets ever cover in the news pages is every single threat or perceived threat to abortion rights. In fact, that is so fixed a view of what constitutes coverage of that issue that it's genuinely hard, I think, for many journalists to see a story outside that paradigm as news. That's not so much a conscious decision as a reflex, but the effect is one-sided coverage". Explaining why some of her colleagues did not report on the story, Henneberger wrote, "One colleague viewed Gosnell's alleged atrocities as a local crime story, though I can't think of another mass murder, with hundreds of victims, that we ever saw that way. Another said it was just too lurid, though that didn't keep us from covering Jeffrey Dahmer, or that aspiring cannibal at the NYPD."[174] Writing for Bloomberg View, Jeffrey Goldberg said that this story "upsets a particular narrative about the reality of certain types of abortion, and that reality isn't something some pro-choice absolutists want to discuss".[175]
The Los Angeles Times,[176] The Atlantic,[177] Slate,[178] and Time[179] all published opinion columns where the writer thought the incident was not getting as much media coverage as it deserved. Megan McArdle explains that she didn't cover it because it made her ill, but also how being pro-choice influenced writers saying "most of us tend to be less interested in sick-making stories if the sick-making was done by 'our side,'" saying, "this story should have been covered much more than it was — covered as a national policy issue, not a 'local crime story.'"[180] Martin Baron, The Washington Post's executive editor, claims he wasn't aware of the story until Thursday, April 11, when readers began emailing him about it, saying "I wish I could be conscious of all stories everywhere, but I can't be".[181] They ultimately decided that, in fact, the story warranted attention because of "the seriousness and scope of the alleged crimes and because this was a case that resonated in policy arguments and national politics", adding "In retrospect, we regret not having staffed the trial sooner. But, as you know, we don't have unlimited resources, and [...] there is a lot of competition for our staff's attention".[181] He insisted that "we never decide what to cover for ideological reasons, no matter what critics might claim. Accusations of ideological motives are easy to make, even if they're not supported by the facts".[181] The New York Times also acknowledged the lack of coverage and reported on the online campaign and subsequent increase in coverage of the case.[182] While Powers' piece clearly sparked debate among journalists, Katherine Bindley also highlights contrasting views,[183] as does Paul Farhi.[181] A column on Salon.com questioned whether the Gosnell case was an example of liberal media bias, saying that conservative media and politicians had also given little attention to the story until April 2013.[184]
In April 2013, 71 other Members of Congress joined Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn in a letter condemning the media "blackout" on the Gosnell trial.[185]
In early 2014, filmmakers Ann McElhinney, Phelim McAleer, and Magdalena Segieda announced they would be producing a true crime drama film of the Gosnell crimes. Nick Searcy would direct, and John Sullivan would serve as executive producer.[186][187] The title for the film is Gosnell: America's Biggest Serial Killer.[188] The producers raised money for production of the movie on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, receiving $2.3 million from backers.[189][190][191] Andrew Klavan was hired to be the screenwriter for the movie.[192] Earl Billings portrays Gosnell, and Dean Cain takes the part of Detective James Wood.[193]
The producers announced on June 26, 2018, that they had signed a distribution deal for the movie, which opened in about 750 theaters on October 12, 2018.[194]
As well, the filmmakers wrote a book titled, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer.
A documentary about the case titled "3801 Lancaster: American Tragedy" was released in 2013, with clips from it shown on media outlets such as CNN.[195][196] The documentary was made by David Altrogge and won Best Short Film at the 2013 Justice Film Festival.[197][198]
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