What I saw at the Gosnell trial

[babylonsister]

What I saw at the Gosnell trial

By J.D. Mullane

Three rows of seats reserved for the media remained empty Thursday morning April 11, 2013 in courtroom 304 at the Justice Center in Philadelphia where abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell is on trial. Gosnell is charged with seven counts of murder for killing seven born-alive children, and also a patient. The man at the rear of the courtroom is David P. Williams, of Delaware Right to Life, who covered the trial for his pro-life blog.

Posted: Sunday, April 14, 2013 6:00 pm | Updated: 6:33 pm, Sun Apr 14, 2013.

By J.D. Mullane

Posted on April 14, 2013


It is hard to decide the most appalling images to emerge Thursday at the murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. What happened in his abortion clinic is beyond any morbid Hollywood horror.


more that I can't bear to post...go here...

http://www.phillyburbs.com/blogs/news_columnists/jd_mullane/what-i-saw-at-the-gosnell-trial/article_c15d6904-cd3c-55b7-970f-f8e510182daf.html

[pintobean]

1. The media should be ashamed of themselves.

This isn't about abortion, it's about a serial killer who murdered newborn babies. If that isn't big national news, I don't know what is.

[msanthrope]

5. No--the media shouldn't be ashamed. The media is doing the right thing.....

This is a death penalty case under a restrictive gag order. The jury is not sequestered. The anti-choice fundies are already there, protesting, harassing.

Trial publicity is an appeal point. Influencing jurors is another.

You want more of a circus?

[PeaceNikki]

9. Yup.

[Llewlladdwr]

13. Yes, they should.

The media had no problem turning the OJ Simpson trial into a circus, or the Casey Anthony trial, or the upcoming George Zimmerman trial, or many, many others.

This is news. It should be reported.

[PeaceNikki]

16. There was no court ordered gag order in any of those cases you cited.

Also- SHITTY examples since this I'd like this fucker to be convicted.

[Skip Intro]

20. If there is a gag on this, how are we learning about these details?

Are you telling me a handfull of internet sites can report to the people (the media's job, yes?) but the major news organizations cannot?

The media isn't reporting on this because the media is concerned with something other than unbiased reporting. (The media lies as well, as has been well documented on this very board.)

I don't appreciate being purposely kept in the dark because the truth might harm an agenda.

[PeaceNikki]

21. uh... the grand jury report.

I guess the gag order only applies to parties involved and now we're learning what's happening in the trial through testimony, etc.

I don't think anyone is trying to keep you in the dark. This is a death penalty case and the jury is not sequestered.

And, both sides see this as harm to the other, so 'agendas' be damned.

[msanthrope]

25. The extensive grand jury report is online.

that's where the details come from. there is an extremely restrictive gag order on the attorneys and everyone involved in this case.

[msanthrope]

26. and two murders walked. thank you for proving my point. nt

[Skip Intro]

18. Yes, they absolutely should be ashamed of themselves.

And they should report the news without an agenda.

[redqueen]

2. This pisses me off to no end.

I asked one of the court staff why so few are interested.

“If you’re pro-choice, do you really want anybody to know about this,” he said, motioning to the filthy medical equipment set up in the courtroom.

It’s a good point. As saturation coverage of the Sandy Hook elementary school coverage has caused Americans to reconsider the limits of the Second Amendment, saturation coverage of Kermit Gosnell’s clinic would likely cause the same reconsideration of abortion rights.

The details are that horrifying.

Reconsideration of the right to control your own body? NO!

Reconsideration of how horrifically negligent PA's regulators are!

I hope this asshole gets tons of feedback for this idiocy.

[Warpy]

3. What anti choicers need to realize is that all abortions

prior to Roe v Wade were very likely to be Gosnell type abortions with filthy equipment by a "doctor" who had never earned the title. Gosnell is only accused of killing one woman. Illegal abortion killed many thousands.

What I want to know is where the state regulators were during this time. They're usually jumping down the throats of any sort of practitioner including dentists. If there were payoffs, I want to know about them. They're the culpable ones here, the ones who didn't do their jobs and either make the guy clean up his act or lose his license.

[babylonsister]

4. SUCH a good damned point;

this "doc" is the prototype for any "doc" who might be available should Roe v. Wade somehow get shot down. It's so horrific.

[nessa]

6. This is what the Grand Jury had to say about the lack of inspections...

"Under Governor Robert Casey, she said, the department inspected abortion facilities annually. Yet, when Governor Tom Ridge came in, the attorneys interpreted the same regulations that had permitted annual inspections for years to no longer authorize those inspections. Then, only complaint driven
inspections supposedly were authorized. Staloski said that DOH’s policy during
Governor Ridge’s administration was motivated by a desire not to be “putting a barrier up
to women” seeking abortions.

Brody confirmed some of what Staloski told the Grand Jury. He described a meeting of high-level government officials in 1999 at which a decision was made not to accept a recommendation to reinstitute regular inspections of abortion clinics. The reasoning, as Brody recalled, was: “there was a concern that if they did routine inspections, that they may find a lot of these facilities didn’t meet , and then there would be less abortion facilities, less access to women to have an abortion.”
Brody testified that he did not consider the “access issue” a legal one. The Abortion Control Act, he told the Grand Jurors, charges DOH with protecting the health and safety of women having abortions and premature infants aborted alive. To carry out this responsibility, he said, DOH should regularly inspect the facilities.

Nevertheless, the position of DOH remained the same after Edward Rendell
became governor. Using the legally faulty excuse that the department lacked the authority
to inspect abortion clinics, Staloski left them unmonitored, presumably with the
knowledge and blessing of her bosses, Deputy Secretary Stacy Mitchell and a succession
of Secretaries of Health. The department continued its do-nothing policy until 2010,..."

[PeaceNikki]

7. The Grand Jury Report does a good job of pointing out

all along the way who played a part. But the bottom line remains: the atrocities that occurred there were able to thrive because of limited access to reproductive choice, not because of reproductive choice itself.

[PeaceNikki]

8. but thanks for keeping your posts out of the Pro-choice forum.

[Skip Intro]

10. I am shocked the media refuses to report on this.

Why would that be?

I can't find a good answer.

I've skipped over the little that I've seen of it.

I mean, if it's described as a horror story - I know what I need to know.

[PeaceNikki]

11. A judicial gag order seems like a good reason, no?

[Skip Intro]

15. That'd seem like news to me. This stuff IS being reported.

Btw, I rearranged my post after you posted. Same ideas, just a different order.

Just fyi.

[jberryhill]

27. There is no such thing as a "gag order" in connection with a public trial

This is a legal proceeding open to the public, and there is no "order" possible which would be binding on the press reporting the trial.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. The board of health and the State Medical Board did not investigate and shut down the clinic.

No licensed nurses, no sanitary equipment, filthy facilities, murdering viable fetuses.

Any inspectors who raised questions were ignored. This is not about legal abortion. This is about desperate women who were too far along to get a legal abortion. And a greedy, sadistic doctor who routinely mutilated women and refused to let them seek proper medical care.

Tort reform is a smokescreen for the real problem. The real problem is the lack of regulation and discipline of doctors by the state board.

I've read the district attorney's report and it's horrific. People are missing the point.

[PeaceNikki]

14. The real problem is also lack of access to safe, affordable, legal abortions.

[cbayer]

17. For more information on this trial, please see this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12641191

[PeaceNikki]

19. Or this one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1152608

[cbayer]

23. Glad to see it's getting some play here.

I had not heard about it until today and I am a newshound. Really makes you wonder what is going on.

[PeaceNikki]

24. His victims were poor people of color.

The media and public care more about Kim Kardashian's pregnancy.

[The Green Manalishi]

28. Exactly

Just like thousands of inner city youths, disproportionately African American or Latino, are killed by firearms and other sorts of violence every year, but 26 white children from a prosperous area get the attention of the national media. If this had happened to upper class caucasians in a trendy upscale neighborhood it would be, and would have been, all over the news from the git-go.

[golfguru]

29. Hear hear! 500 minority youths shot every year in Chicago is no news but

20 kids shot in a prosperous "suburban" area is national news with every politician commenting.

[UTUSN]

22. this is an alleged serial killer.not a doctor and not about pro.choice. nt