The grand jury’s report on the Gosnell Women’s Medical Services clinic (pdf) is freely available online, with photographs. It’s 281 pages of gag-reflex-inducing horror.
Gosnell was living the good life: the report estimates he was bringing in almost $2 million a year, a number that is only approximated from the number of abortions he was doing and the amount he was charging, because he always dealt in cash. He had a small group of poorly trained, non-professional people doing much of the ‘medical’ work — including at least one high school student who was administering tests and drugs to patients — and idled at home most of the day, coming in in the evening to do procedures. Procedures that he himself was not qualified or certified to do.
He carried out many late-term abortions, often past the legal cutoff (his procedure was to do a crude ultrasound, manipulate the results, and claim the fetus, no matter how old it was, was 24.5 weeks old). His style was cheap, lazy, and harmful to the woman. The standard procedure was for the women to come in during the day, and his staff would administer drugs to induce labor — even in women 30 weeks or more pregnant — and then send them in to the bathroom, where they would ‘deliver’ into the toilet. The toilet would sometimes get clogged with aborted fetal tissue.
Sometimes the fetus would be delivered alive, and at an age where, if this were done in a hospital, the newborn would have a good chance of surviving. Gosnell’s job as a doctor was to take these squirming, sometimes crying babies, and stab them in the back of the neck with a pair of scissors to kill them.
Sometimes, too, the women died.
All this was done in a filthy clinic cluttered with obsolete and broken equipment. There were bloodstains on the stirrups of the gynecological tables. There were jars with bits of fetuses snipped off and stored in preservatives. He was constantly late in paying for medical waste pickup and disposal; there were leaking bags of aborted tissue in piles in the basement. The staff complained that sometimes he was lazy and left the dead fetuses in shoe boxes out in the clinic, so they’d be greeted by the reek of rotting flesh when they walked in the door in the morning.
He had been doing this for decades. His clinic was constantly overlooked or given a pass by the government agencies responsible for inspections and standards. That’s the stunning part of this story, that he actually got away with murder for so many years. How could that happen?
Bureaucratic inertia is not exactly news. We understand that. But we think this was something more. We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.
I suspect that part of the abortion football game was the fact that women who were desperate, who knew they were stretching the boundaries of legality and convention, were unlikely to complain to the authorities about a clinic that was delivering services (incompetently and often fatally) that they needed. Gosnell was living high on the absence of clean, licensed, professional women’s medical services in many parts of the region — he could get by with criminally substandard treatment because our government has been actively destroying the ethical and competent competition.
If my abbreviated summary above is enough to sicken you, I strongly recommend that you don’t read the grand jury report. It’s hundreds of pages of explicit evil.
This is exactly why abortion should always be accessible, affordable and legal. There will always be a certain segment of the population that will be willing to prey on the desperate and the scared.
As the Talibangelicals continue their vigorous campaign to eliminate regulated, above-board, compassionate providers, THIS is what will step in to fill the void. THIS is the past horror they are working so hard to bring back.
And they irony is that they will use this person as justification for driving Planned Parenthood and other people out of business.
for those left wondering: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
but it would be equally fucking sickening anywhere.
The grand jury report begins by saying “we kinow this case will be used by both sides in the abortion debate” and there you see how, in the first 2 comments of this thread.
It horrifies me all the more that I have “pro-life” relatives and friends of relatives claiming that Gosnell is the rule, not the exception. And they completely ignore me when I try to explain that this is why women of all walks of life need access to contraception, proper sex education, and abortion. Because desparate women will go to butchers like Gosnell if we give them no other choice.
Jesus Christ…
You just know the “pro-life” crowd will have a moment of stupidity and use this ammo for illegalising abortion, rather than seeing it for what it really is: a damn good argument for making abortion legal, ethical, and well-regulated.
This is sickening. And this is why abortion access is important. Well, another reason in the long list of reasons.
I don’t think I can comment further with both the bile rising and my anger growing.
Chas,
We could just say that it’s sickening and ignore the implications regarding the availability of abortion services, especially for poor women and non-white women , but I kinda find that sickening too.
This.
Both sides will try to use this. One side will have a point in the dangers of needlessly restricting access to abortion because of the dangers of unregulated and illegal practices. The other side will use hyperbole to make an appeal to emotion in order to use this incident to cast a bad light on all abortion providers.
One is reasoned, one is justified. The other is fearmongering bullshit.
I hate to link to H***P*, but this is a very good piece by Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America on why women went to Gosnell’s clinic:
All of the above can be laid squarely at the feet of conservatives. And they will never, ever change their policies no matter how much evil results from them.
And here’s another irony:
And it’s not just that conservative politians have been driving legit clinics out of business – in many cases they have done so by imposing excessive regulations and requirements. Regulations that will never, ever be applied to fuckers like this. In case anyone needed more proof that the anti-abortion movement doesn’t give two shits about saving babies (it’s already well-established that they don’t care about women’s lives.)
Oh, right, I didn’t mention that it was in Philadelphia. West Philadelphia, near Penn and Drexel, a few blocks north of Market street. It’s a weird part of town where you simultaneously have the prestigious Ivy League school cheek by jowl next to a desperately poor neighborhood with very high crime rates. Not far away is CHOP and the University hospital.
It’s a good place to visit if you want to see the two Americas split by economic inequities, all in one place.
Makes me think of this news I saw recently, from my home country:
Would the same situation arrise? (Unfortunately maybe it does and I just don’t know about it)
Oh, pshaw. Ignoring the implications is the only way to be a True Skeptic(tm). Haven’t we learned that very very well by now?
/strawvulcan.
PZ, given the disturbing nature of this entry, maybe it should be changed so that the details are behind the “Read More” button.
?
What ignoring implications? Those implications are ionherent in one of the two “uses” of the case to which I referred.
The one that I would endorse personally, btw. I think you were implying otherwise. False positive.
ionherent, you know: not just inherent, but also bearing an electrical charge.
Made the mistake of reading just a bit of the report. I’m going to be hypotensive the rest of the day it is so sickeningly disturbing. Little rivals this. Let this be a warning to others, heed PZ’s advice.
…and where by “the ‘use’ I endorse” I mean:
Just to be clear.
On further reflection, wtf? Merely observing that the Others will use the same facts in a totally opposite rhetorical way makes me a strawvulcan?
Commenting on how a case is going to be used to support an agenda is usually meant as an accusation so it seemed weird that you’d write it just as an observation. Sorry, Chas, misunderstanding.
Chas, you wrote
And the first two in the thread made the same argument how this case illustrates the need for easy abortion access.
Looking back at your message, I can see it now that you’ve stated it more explicitly. But when I read your message the first time, it sounded like you were scolding both sides since the only side presented in the comments thus far were condemnations of anti-abortion activists.
I was making what I thought was a very clear jab at the hyperskeptics we constantly get here whenever women’s issues comes up. Obviously, it wasn’t clear enough.
So, let me be clearer: Chas, my comment had nothing to do with you.
Something I don’t understand: Where were all the hyperzealous antiabortion people who make it their goal in life to make sure that the closets in clinics that offer abortion are the regulation size during the years that Gosnell was active? Was he bribing them to stay away or were they deliberately letting things get as bad as possible to punish poor women seeking abortion and/or have a clear bad example to parade around?
I’ll just leave this here, because as we all know, folks WILL need context to fight the incoming bullshit tsunami.
http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/history_abortion.html
Pteryxx:
Thank you for that link.
There is much I was unaware of.
dianne 22: From what I understand, Gosnell operated a cash-only business without proper licenses, so it was essentially off the books (and unregulated). That may have kept him off the radar of the Forced Birth Brigades.
I’m already getting email from Catholics (who knew they’d read my blog so diligently?) informing me that now that I’ve recognized the evil of abortion, they expect me to join them in their crusade against Planned Parenthood.
Wait wait wait, so when you make laws that severely restrict access to safe abortions, women get them anyway, but in horrible, nightmarish, unsafe conditions, performed by sadistic unethical shitheads? Who ever would’ve thought??
Answer: every pro-choice person ever.
@roro80
#27
Plus some pro-life people, them immoral baby factories need to be punished.
#28 — Ugh, that’s so depressing. It’s one thing to be pro-life if you actually think the only effect is saving the baybees for Jesus or whatever, but how fucked up does one have to be to know that this is the result and yet still think this is preferable?
The religious right and pro-lifers think that if abortions are illegal then all of teh bebe killing that us pro-choicers just seem to LOVE (sarcasm) will immediately stop. As is usual, they seem to think that the law is this insurmountable thing writ in stone that no one can disobey. In reality, this would just ensure that people will receive dangerous, unhealthy, possibly even immoral, abortions.
It reminds me of people with an abstinence only policy: “If we say no sex before marriage, then automagically somehow, everyone will stop having sex before marriage. Problem solved!” Neither group seems to understand human nature very well.
“Pro-life” is a smokescreen. Unless those same people are also against war, poverty, and drug abuse, and actively doing something to combat these, they are not “pro-life.” They are anti-choice.
If their agenda truly were to reduce aborton to zero or near-zero, they would be working on comprehensive sex education, distribution of barrier contraception, and a few other small details like teaching boys and men not to rape.
I do share one feeling with the “pro-lifers:” I want to see abortion not used outside of medical cases. But I want to see that happen because it’s not needed, not because someone has no recourse. Safe, legal, and rarer than an honest politician is what I hope for.
cmaximus@30
as has been stated far more eloquently by more urbane folks here: They don’t care about helping, they care about making sure people do the “right” thing, where “right” is defined as “whatever I (or my pastor) tells me to do”
This shit is disgusting. I haven’t had my stomach physically churn like that since I saw battlefield injuries. I also firmly believe that people need to rip the “pro-life” moniker from these talibangicals. Saying your “pro-life” while advocating for people to die in the streets, reduce health care, and start foreign wars is not “pro-life,” it’s fucking Orwellian newspeak.
PZ @26 – Of course Catholics read your blog diligently, they just don’t understand it. If they did, they wouldn’t be Catholics. And they would even comprehend that you have not, in fact, “recognized the evil of abortion.” I didn’t think it was even possible, but these dumbass emails make Catholics look even more ridiculous than they already do as woman-hating pedophile supporters.
Over at Zinnia’s, she’s reprinted Heather’s takedown of the sensationalizing aspects of the grand jury report.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/zinniajones/2013/04/looking-gosnell-in-the-eye/
@roro80
#28
Or some people have no idea what calling themselves pro-life means. I’ve known some people who called themselves pro-life and actually support legalizing abortion, namely being they have no idea what Pro-Life actually stands for.
I’ve heard the following, paraphrased.
Acquaintance: “Just because I’m Pro-Life doesn’t mean I don’t support someone else getting an abortion they need.”
Assholes?
@22 dianne
With typical right wing
logiccognitive dissonance, they are fine with “big government” as long as it’s incompetent or not useful. You wouldn’t want to spend that money on things that help, like educating the public and making sure that clinics have proper oversight so that monsters like Gosnell are shutdown.Via Salon, this 2011 detailed coverage of the Gosnell investigation and why the inspectors never came after his clinic.
Neglect of West Philly Abortion Victims Was By Design
All of this is ALSO in the grand jury report… while the grisly pictures and descriptions of filth will get all the attention, played up by the anti-abortion cause.
@Pteryxx
#37
This part worries me.
I can just see the attack now.
“See! All this happened because of a pro-death traitor!”
Iris van der Pluym #9 quotes Kate Michelman:
I am not American, perhaps that is the reason for my befuddlement. I do understand that freedom of speech is extremely important, and even a bit more than extremely important in the absolutist eyes of some Americans. But there is also something called public order, and it must surely be a known concept in the US as well. When protestors are intimidating and hindering people who are going about their business legally, why doesn’t the police show up (in full riot gear, if need be) and clear the streets?
They could still have their freedom of speech of course, but somewhere else.
@ Olav:
Quick drive-by, because this thread will definitely be giving me nightmares later and I’d prefer not to linger… but in short “public order” in the US is easily trumped by “free speech”. The Right (and some others) are very adept at donning the mantle of Free Speech as a way to cover actions that would seem to contravene public order. Usually, it’s a pretty successful tactic. See, for instance, the happily litigious Westboro Baptist Church.
More specifically, on the subject of protests at abortion clinics, I believe the standard line is to claim that protests are protected free speech, in that they are taking place in public spaces (e.g. the sidewalk outside a clinic — note that clinics that don’t front onto public property can’t be picketed legally, at least not on the private property) and are clearly targeted at “objectionable” policy by the state (i.e. letting women control their bodies, the horror). It’s been a hotly contested issue in the courts.
Here‘s a pretty decent history and case summary of the issues surrounding abortion clinic protests.
Here’s a couple of other overview articles that might be helpful to someone from outside the US:
Balancing the right of patients and employees to unimpeded access to the abortion clinic against the protesters’ right to free speech — USSC Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, No. 93-880. I’m fairly sure this is the foundational case for constitutionally-permitted buffer zones.
Obama administrations greater push to enforce active law described here. This also has some good analysis of the anti- position, and their cries of censorship and constitutional violation. Of special note is that this is still a very contested issue — note that administration efforts are focused on enforcing laws from 1994.
TL;DR: “Public order” is not valued as highly in the US as it is in other nations. Free speech/freedom of expression are given much greater weight, and the resulting court decisions typically focus on whether or not an injunction/buffer zone infringes on speech. Strangely, that wasn’t an issue when the GOP designated a “free speech zone” miles away from their convention…. it’s almost like there’s a double standard.
PatrickG #40, thanks for your reply:
I gathered as much of course, but I still don’t quite understand why that works out the way it does. If people enjoying their right of free speech are restricting the freedom of others to do the things they are legally entitled to do, isn’t that a clear case where intervention is needed? Harassment and threats aren’t free speech, are they?
You don’t say.
I do see the potential problems with such “free speech zones”. But they could be a solution for the anti-abortion protestors. Let them protest far from the clinics. A freshly ploughed field at the edge of town (after a week of heavy rain) should do nicely.
I went through over two hundred pages of that horror. It was “gag-reflex-inducing”. It contained descriptions of the most horrible and disgusting practices I’ve heard of all week and the most outrageous acts of bureaucratic and state incompetence I’ve heard of all month. Did you know impersonating a doctor wasn’t a crime in Pennsylvania when that report was written?
The fact I support strict regulation of “ambulatory surgical facilities” is one of the reasons I do not describe myself as a libertarian.
I was absolutely willing to tap out after your summation, PZ.
thumper1990, @5:
Even more twisted, the folks using this case as “ammo” against anti-gun-but-pro-choice liberals. E.g.: “If this doctor had used an AR-15 to kill that many babies, the left would be OUTRAGED.” (I couldn’t find a link to article making this point but you’ll see it in some readers’ posts and I heard a local talk radio host exploiting that meme.)
Oh this was so sickening to read. I don’t understand how viable babies could be treated like hamburger meat – these were little people at this point for fuck’s sake. And killed while viable in such a grotesque manner? I sound almost pro-life – I’m absolutely not. After having my own spawnling a few years back, my awe of the development and the amazing experience of carrying a life changed me. Stories of bad shit happening to babies and children hit me so much more personally than they did before I had kids. I don’t think, at this point in my life, I could personally choose an abortion unless my life were at risk, however I abhor the though of someone making that decision for other women and myself. There are many, many reasons why it’s a bad idea to bring a new life into this crazy world and it’s not up to lawmakers to decide the issue for me. I do wonder why someone would go through a late-term abortion without it being a medical necessity – once you are in your 3rd trimester you have a sense that there is a person in there – with a personality – you know when they are sleeping, you know when they are awake, you know when they respond to your voice or other stimulus. Yet, maybe the reasons for considering such an option is darker than the act of late term abortion itself. The very fact that this clinic existed at all is a testament to the many layers of problems we face as women, and a society. From abuse and violence, to legislation regarding our reproductive rights, to religious bullying and oppression – it’s all right there in those bloody rooms in Philadelphia.
This is very disturbing. And the reason those pro-life protesters aren’t at these illegally run clinics is not because they don’t know about them. They do, but the protest Planned Parenthood because “they aren’t paying taxes to fund abortion”. It’s about the money. As if that’s all Planned Parenthood does. That’s only a fraction of the services Planned Parenthood provides. But you already knew that.
Another irony: the same conservatives who don’t think we should tighten gun laws believe that we should completely ban abortion.
Wow. It took me several hours and several beers to get through that document. How do people get so detached from what they are doing? How do they treat fellow humans like that? Shit. Now I’m even more depressed.
For a less gut-churning, less trigger-y read on the benefits of safe, legal abortion, there’s Julia Sweeney’s latest book. In Chapter 16, she and her mother-in-law Norma compare their abortion stories. Julia’s was a legal abortion done in L.A. in the early 90s, and the worst thing for her was feeling bad for some of the other women who seemed like they lacked support at home. Norma got an illegal abortion in Washington DC in the late 50s, and her story reads like a goddamn mob movie script. Meeting people on street corners (hold a Reader’s Digest so we will know it’s you) and getting blindfolded before being driven to an unknown location. Her husband not being allowed to come and waiting for hours for her to be dropped off on the streets. Her husband thinking she’s probably died and her body dumped when they don’t show up until hours after the appointed drop-off time. And as she tells it, Norma openly admits that hers was a relatively high-end abortion, and that she got much better care than women who couldn’t come up with $1100 cash, which an online inflation calculator says would be more like $8700 today.
TheRoot’s take on why women were desperate enough to go to Gosnell: (link)
That link again, for the national network of financial abortion assistance: http://www.fundabortionnow.org
and as I’ve said before, what I wouldn’t give for some sort of Sponsor-an-IUD program for poor and nonwhite teenagers.
—
Another disturbing, first-hand story about the pre-Roe underground network: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/way-it-was
They told me that if abortion were illegal, then women would die in back-alley abortions. Well, abortion is legal, and women are still dying, not in back alley abortions, but in clinics known to the government regulators who are supposed to keep these medical procedures safe for women.
So let me get this straight. The logic here is that because of “excessive” regulation (the regulations that treat abortion clinics like any other surgical facility), women go to unregulated butchers like Gosnell (who are not following the rules for safe medical procedures). So if we’d only remove the regulations, then the abortion clinics would use safe practices voluntarily rather than not do them when they are imposed by the government. I don’t think the “free” thinking that I’m experiencing here is “logical” thinking.
I am encouraged by the number of people here who are horrified by the babies getting scissors in their brains and getting their spinal cords snipped while they are crying after taking their first breath. Or maybe I’m misunderstanding, and the horror is engendered by the perforated bowels and uteruses, and venerial diseases transmitted to the women. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.
So if you want to see abortion safe, I suggest you lobby for proper regulation of your local abortion clinic. Encourage them to stick to the gestational guidelines, and stop making excuses for women who want an abortion after going past the gestational limits. At that point, they have made their “choice”.
And prosecute those butchers who prey on these women. As someone who is unapologetically pro-life (and believes the choice is made when the zipper is unzipped and the legs are spread), I’d prefer to see all abortion made illegal. But brick by brick. First stigamatize abortionists, and discourage doctors who value their reputation from getting into this line of work. Then regulate the abortion industry to the same degree as any other surgical procedure. It should be as safe to get an abortion as it is to get your appendix out, and third push strongly for informed consent laws, including ultrasounds (unless the potential mother refuses).
Oh, and finally, I am personally going to tar the entire abortion industry with this man. Many of you, I’m sure, used Sandy Hook Elementary to tar every legal gun owner and push for more regulations on us. So sauce for the goose and all that.
You’ve just shouted “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT”
That whole post was weapons grade stupid.
You two are just saying that because you can’t deal with The Truth [insert thunder and lightning] when you read it.
*nods sagely*
…
No, really, it felt like all that was missing from fool’s comment was some thunder to mark the great revelations he had brought to us. It is rather remarkable to see such carefully constructed pile of shit. I feel we should pin a medal to his shit-smeared puffed up chest.
“abortion industry”
yeesh
Here’s a <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/there_is_no_gosnell_coverup/"good article to read for everyone. Those with brains will see how and why this was story wasn’t covered till recently.
For idiots, this will explain why the Gosnell story doesn’t make your stupid point.
From the article:
Tony Miller
How would you feel about free contraception for everyone?
Wow. I think the best part of that was being pissed off about us liberals coming fer his guns. Take THAT, liberal scum!
Can we get a BENGHAZI too? Maybe a demand for the birth certificate? Not even a mention of Agenda 21! It’s just … not quite there yet, Tony. Why you leaving us hanging?
But I’ll respond to one very specific thing out of that word salad:
Oh my, yes, it should. Glad we agree on that. Now, since abortion is still legal in this country, how about you anti-women people stop shutting down clinics, shooting doctors, and defunding vital health services?
That is what makes abortion unsafe. People like you. You must be so proud.