Some may remember the legal
proceedings brought against former physician Kermit Barron Gosnell in 2011 when
he was charged with illegally performing abortions beyond the state’s 24-week
time limit and for the murder of babies born alive during the procedure. He was
also charged with involuntary manslaughter of Karnamava Mongar, one of the
mothers he gave an abortion to that died afterwards.
Even before this, he had legal
troubles surrounding his medical practices. In 2000, he was sued on behalf of a
woman he performed an abortion on who experienced abnormal bleeding after the
procedure when she had returned home. She called and reported the problem but
was ever advised to return for treatment and she subsequently died 3 days later
of a perforated uterus and a bloodstream infection. Gosnell settled out of
court in 2002 for $900,000.
In the 2011 case, Gosnell and
his staff members were subsequently arrested and charged with 8 counts of
murder, (7 of the infants had their spinal cord cut with scissors to facilitate
their deaths after they were born alive during the abortion procedure), 24
felony counts of performing abortion beyond Pennsylvania’s set time restraints
of 24-weeks, and 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour consent law.
His 2013 convictions varied slightly
as he was finally convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortions,
211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law, first degree murder
in the deaths of 3 of the infants and involuntary manslaughter of Mongar. He
was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he waved
his right to appeal in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table.
Last week, with much fanfare, New
York state passed the “Reproductive Health Act” and it was celebrated in the
chamber with a standing ovation. The RHA removes abortion from the criminal
code making it no longer illegal, and established the legality of killing a
baby right up until the time of its birth.
The convicted doctor Gosnell
always declared he was innocent and “just ahead of his time.” Sadly, and
shamefully, New York state just proved him right.
It is not clear who originally
stated, “Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest
members – the last, the least, the littlest.” The sentiment is attributed to
both Pearl S. Buck and Cardinal Roger Mahoney but is true nevertheless.
Nelson Mandela once said, “The
true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.” In another
version he was credited as having said, “A nation should not be judged by how
it treats its highest citizens, but it’s lowest ones.”
Jesus said concerning those who
harm children in Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one
of these little ones.” What more grievous offense could be done to a child than
to murder it?
History will indeed judge America for the way it has
defended and tolerated, and currently promotes, the murder of our most innocent
ones, and God will too.
