Both sides condemn convicted doctor
PHILADELPHIA — Dr. Kermit Gosnell considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions, but a Philadelphia jury called him a murderer who killed three babies after they were born alive.
Gosnell, 72, was convicted Monday of three counts of first-degree murder but acquitted of murdering a fourth aborted baby. He was also found guilty of manslaughter, not third-degree murder, in a patient’s 2009 overdose death.
The same jury that returned that measured verdict after 10 days behind closed doors is set to return next week to decide if Gosnell deserves the death penalty.
Prosecutors want to send Gosnell to death row because he killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell’s advanced age makes it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out. Prosecutors might offer a life sentence if he agrees to give up those appeals.
Defense lawyer Jack McMahon called such negotiations commonplace, but declined to discuss whether they were likely in this case.
Partisans on both sides of the nation’s polarized abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict.
“This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about,” said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion “once the unborn child can feel pain.”
The gruesome details came out more than two years ago during the grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking at Gosnell’s clinic. Investigators said it was a foul-smelling “house of horrors” with bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments, and cats roaming the premises.
Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.
“Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let’s make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care,” said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
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