Kermit Gosnell
Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American serial killer and former abortion doctor. At his clinic in West Philadelphia, Gosnell provided illegal and unsafe late-term abortions, committed post-labor infanticide after many live births, and ran a prescription pill mill which eventually attracted federal attention. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce labor, the manslaughter of one woman who died of an anesthetic overdose during an abortion procedure, and of several other abortion- and drug-related crimes. Staff at Gosnell's clinic testified that there were hundreds of infants born alive during abortion procedures and subsequently killed either by Gosnell himself or on Gosnell's orders by staff.
Gosnell, based in the Mantua neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned and operated the Women's Medical Society Clinic, a non-compliant abortion clinic located at 3801 Lancaster Avenue that was dubbed a "house of horrors" during his criminal trial. In a 2010 raid, authorities found the intact human remains of 47 fetuses and babies stored in bags and cartons, numerous of which were suspected and later confirmed to be victims of infanticide. 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. Pearl and the eight employees pleaded guilty to various charges in 2011, whilst Gosnell pleaded not guilty and sought a jury trial.
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 the
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. Gosnell was sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison for federal drug charges. Gosnell is currently incarcerated at SCI Huntingdon.
Education and early career
Gosnell was born on February 9, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the only child of a gas station operator and a government clerk. He was a student at the city's Central High School, from which he graduated in 1959. Gosnell initially attended the University of Pennsylvania, and then graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor's degree. He received his medical degree at the Thomas Jefferson University in 1966.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. 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. 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."
That same year, Gosnell also performed fifteen televised second-trimester abortions, using an experimental and dangerous "Super Coil" method invented by Harvey Karman in an event that was referred to as the "Mother's Day Massacre of 1972." The coils were inserted into the uterus, where they caused irritation leading to the expulsion of the fetus. However, complications from the procedure were reported by nine of the women, with three of these reporting severe complications. One woman had to receive a hysterectomy.
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. 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.
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. They have two children. Gosnell has four other children from his two previous marriages. 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.
Medical practice
In 2011, Gosnell was reported to be well known in Philadelphia for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women. Gosnell has been accused of racism on the basis that he separated white women from black women, giving white women a slightly cleaner room for their abortion procedures. It was also claimed that he charged 3,000 for each late-term abortion, and had made 15,000 per day from the clinic.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.
Known prior complaints
- 1989 and 1993 – Cited by Pennsylvania Department of Health for having no nurses in the recovery room.
- 1996 – Censured and fined in both Pennsylvania and New York for employing unlicensed personnel.
- Around '1997 – Pediatrician Dr. Donald Schwarz testified in the 2010 hearing that around 1996–1997, he had hand-delivered a letter of complaint about Gosnell's practice to the Secretary of Health's office and stopped referring patients to the clinic, but received no response.
- 2000 – Civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the children of Semika Shaw, who had called the clinic the day after an abortion to report heavy bleeding, and died three days later of a perforated uterus and a bloodstream infection. The case alleged that Gosnell had failed to tell her to return to the clinic or seek emergency medical care. The case was settled out of court in 2002 for $900,000.
- Around 2001 – Gosnell claimed to be providing children's vaccines under a program administered by the Health Department's Division of Disease Control, but was repeatedly suspended for failing to maintain logs and for storing vaccines in unsanitary and inappropriate refrigerators, and at improper temperatures.
- December 2001 – Ex-employee Marcella Choung gave what a grand jury would later call "a detailed written complaint" to the Pennsylvania Department of State, one which she followed up with an interview in March 2002.
- 2006' – Civil lawsuit filed by patient but dismissed as out of time. The complaint was that Gosnell had been unable to complete an abortion, but then apparently failed or refused to call paramedics or other clinical emergency personnel after the patient had needed help. The patient reported, "I really felt like he was going to let me die."
Legal case
2010 raid
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 and Pennsylvania State Police. The raid was the result of a months-long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, 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, 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:Gosnell's license to practice was suspended on February 22, 2010, 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. 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. Prosecutors alleged that Gosnell had not been certified in either gynecology or obstetrics. 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.