9 Things You Should Know About the Gosnell Infanticide and Murder Trial

9 Things You Should Know About the Gosnell Infanticide and Murder Trial  by Joe Carter:

Today [May 13th] marks one year since Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist from Pennsylvania, was convicted  of three counts of first-degree murder. Here are 9 things you should know about the case of America's most prolific serial killer:1. Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, charged with eight counts of murder: one patient died under his care after a botched abortion, and seven infants supposedly born alive whose spinal cords Gosnell  severed with scissors.

2. According to prosecutors in Philadelphia, Gosnell catered to minorities, immigrants, and poor women, and made millions of dollars over 30 years performing illegal and late-term abortions in squalid and barbaric conditions. Gosnell took extra precautions with white women from the suburbs, according to the grand jury report. He ushered them into a slightly cleaner area because he thought they would be more likely to file a complaint.

3. Women paid $325 for first-trimester abortions and $1,600 to $3,000 for abortions up to 30 weeks. The clinic took in up to $15,000 a day, said authorities. Although abortions after the 24th week are illegal, Gosnell aborted and killed babies in the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy and charged more for bigger babies.

4. According to the grand jury report, the clinic reeked of animal urine and the furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Medical instruments found in the practice had not been properly sterilized. State officials have failed to visit or inspect his abortion clinic since 1993. Prosecutors also claim that Gosnell was not certified in either gynecology or obstetrics.

5. Prosecutors said that none of Gosnell's staff, including his wife, were licensed nurses or doctors and that a 15-year-old student performed anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics.

6. A woman who worked for Gosnell testified that she was called back to a room at his abortion clinic in Philadelphia where the bodies of aborted babies were kept to hear one screaming amid a shelf-full of dead babies. "I can't describe it," says the woman. "It sounded like a little alien." She says the body of the child was about 18 to 24 inches long and was one of the largest babies she had seen delivered during abortion procedures at Gosnell's clinic.

7. On January 31, 1998, a then 15 year old Robyn Reid sought an abortion from Gosnell's clinic. Once she was in the clinic, though, Reid, an 87-pound teenager at the time, told Gosnell she changed her mind about the abortion. She claims Gosnell got upset, ripped off her clothes, restrained her, and repeatedly told her, "This is the same care that I would give to my own daughter." Reid regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt's home, with the abortion having been completed against her will.

8. At the time of Gosnell's arrest and trial, his crimes received almost no coverage by the national media. During the early part of the trial ABC, CBS and NBC did not cover the trial at all, yet gave 41 minutes and 26 seconds of air time to the story of Mike Rice, the Rutgers basketball coach who was fired for verbally and physically abusing his players.

9. The 3801 Lancaster Film Project is an ongoing documentary series about Kermit Gosnell, the Women's Medical Society, and the cover-up by state and local oversight agencies.
(Warning: The video contains graphic images.)

Praying to the False God of Death

This is almost too horrible to describe. Read it and weep.

Praying to the Abortion God.

“You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:21, ESV).

God have mercy on this nation!

“180″ Reviewed

Here's a link to Justin Taylor's helpful review and critique of Ray Comfort’s “180″ Film on Hitler and Abortion

"180"

The "180 Movie" is now out and viewable on line. Here it is!



It takes about 30 minutes to watch, but it is well worth the time investment. There is some graphic material, so be forewarned. How anyone could not be pro-life after watching this is beyond my comprehension.

May God bless the use of this movie for his glory and purpose.

What If Roe v. Wade Never Happened?

“…choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” – Deut. 30:19, KJV

From The Seeds of Slaughter @ SBC Voices:

What if the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade had never occurred? What would happen if the High Court’s decision to legalize abortion was reversed? How many babies, if given the chance to simply live, would grow up to make a difference? How many parents would, in the end, be glad that they let their children live?

What if we’ve murdered a future president at some point within the last 38 years? What if we’ve callously killed blameless babies that would have become doctors, loving mothers, teachers, and preachers? How many potentially productive people have died at the hands of pitiless physicians all in the name of choice?

What if one of those murdered millions would have become Secretary-General for the United Nations? What if we’ve slaughtered an infant that would have developed a cure for cancer or the common cold? What if we’ve mistakenly massacred millions of innocent infants for the sake of individual liberty? What about the life and liberty of the person inside the womb? What if, in our pursuit of happiness, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by being selfish and greedy instead of loving and principled?

What if we had contemplated the consequences? What if we had decided that fetuses are lives and not just decisions? How would you feel if, at sometime during the last four decades, we had unknowingly butchered a future member of your family? How would you TRULY feel if one of those executed babies had happened to be YOU?

War on Crisis Pregnancy Centers

From Albert Mohler's article - The Culture of Death Grows Desperate: War Declared on Crisis Pregnancy Centers:

The way this issue is framed by many in the major national media was made clear in an August 2, 2011 report in The New York Times. Reporter Jesse McKinley began his article with this remarkable sentence:

“Seeking to stem what they call misleading advertising, San Francisco officials on Tuesday began a two-pronged attack on ‘crisis pregnancy centers,’ which are billed as places for pregnant women to get advice, but often use counseling to discourage abortions.”

Look carefully at that sentence. The conjunction “but” is intended to contrast the phrases linked together. Thus, McKinley writes that the crisis pregnancy centers “are billed as places for pregnant women to get advice,” but they “often use counseling to discourage abortion.” In other words, he insinuates that if crisis pregnancy centers “use counseling to discourage abortions,” they are not “places for women to get advice.” Evidently, the only acceptable “advice” is counseling that encourages a woman to abort the baby within her.

This is the logic of the Culture of Death laid bare for all to see. Crisis pregnancy centers deserve the support of all who cherish the sanctity of life, the defense of the unborn, and the right of free speech.

As defenders of life, crisis pregnancy centers should be committed to nothing less than comprehensive truth-telling. It is the Culture of Death, and not the Culture of Life, that fears the truth.

Much more content at the link above.

For more happy news see Some Positive pro-Life Trends.

Mortality and Legacy

On the morning of Thanksgiving Day in 2009 Pastor Matt Chandler (Village Church, Highland Village, TX) fell to the floor with a seizure and awoke in the hospital to discover that he had brain cancer.

What does a young pastor facing possible iminent death think a bout his mortailty and legacy?  Here's Matt Chandler:- How Cancer Has Changed Me:

It’s made me think a lot more about my mortality. For example, if I die and The Village Church falls apart, do I care? I’ll be honest, I don’t. It seems to me that when you look at history, God raises up certain men for certain seasons in certain places. He pours out his Spirit on them, and when they’re done its very rare for God to continue the work that was done uniquely through him. If I die and The Village ends, I’m alright with that. If believers here find a place where the gospel is preached, and people are being saved, and the mission is being lived out, then I will not have failed.

If I’m going to die in two years, I started asking God what I should do. I put a lot of pressure on myself because in our culture there is the expectation that a ministry has to flourish even after you’re gone. That’s unfair, unhistoric, and maybe even unbiblical. Realizing that took a lot of pressure off of me. I had peace to just faithfully do what I’ve been doing here since day one. Then just let go and see what the Lord does with it.

 Here are some related comments ( not about Chandler, but the general topic of "legacy") from Darryl Dash:

No matter how many people we pastor, our leadership and influence is temporary. We will be forgotten. Even those who rise from obscurity to become leading leaders, so to speak, will be passed over more quickly than we think.

.......I thought of a conference blurb I read. Most blurbs are easily forgotten, but this one stuck. It announced the conference lineup, including this description of one of the speakers (Daniel Montgomery):

Daniel, the senior pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, says his vision statement is, ”Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.”

I love that. That may be the best vision statement for a pastor I’ve read. Don’t aspire to rise from obscurity; aspire to attain obscurity, but preach the gospel in the meantime. That’s the type of pastor we need.

Abortion Industry is Losing Its Support (PTL!)

The following quote is from 15 Reasons the Abortion Industry is Losing Its Support  by George Grant at the Ligonier Ministries Blog:As we approach the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this is good news indeed!

Why does it seem that the abortion industry’s grassroots support is slipping at the very moment when its power and resources have reached their zenith? At least part of the reason may be the very nature of the abortion business itself—along with the inevitable fallout that accompanies it. Consider:

• Although heralded by the abortion lobby as both “safe and legal,” it is now apparent that abortion is merely “legal.” The complications of this, the most commonly performed medical procedure in America today, are legion. They include sterility—occurring in as many as 25 percent of all women receiving mid-trimester abortions; hemorrhaging—nearly 10 percent of all cases require transfusions; viral hepatitis—occurring in 10 percent of all those transfused; embolism—occurring in as many as 4 percent of all cases; cervical laceration; pelvic inflammatory disease; genital tract infection; cardiorespiratory arrest; acute kidney failure; and amniotic fluid embolus.
• As a result of these sundry complications, women in America have seen a massive increase in the cost of medical care. While the average cost of normal health maintenance for men has increased nearly 12 percent over the past fifteen years due to inflation, the average cost for women has skyrocketed a full 27 percent.
• A spate of medical malpractice lawsuits from botched abortions has intensified the industry’s already looming insurability crisis.
• At the same time, the cultural and political stigmatization of abortion providers has dramatically reduced the number of qualified physicians willing to serve them. As a result, many clinics have been forced to rely on less adequately trained personnel—nurse practitioners and doctors who more often than not have failed in private or institutional practices.
• Revelations about deliberately suppressed research data on various procedural risks—particularly concerning the established links between abortion and breast cancer—have raised new questions about the industry’s medical objectivity and professional integrity.
• New clinical evidence exposing the grave hazards of several of the other forms of treatment championed by the industry—from the deleterious effects of the RU-486 abortion drug and the Norplant contraceptive surgery to the inherent risks and complications in the use of intrauterine devices—have raised the specter of “wholesale institutional quackery.”
• The shadow over the industry’s iatrogenic carelessness has been further darkened by its enthusiastic defense of the horrifying second-trimester “dilation and extraction” surgical procedure—commonly known as D&X or “partial-birth” abortion.
• In addition, the industry has staked its tenuous reputation on the therapeutic usefulness of two very dangerous new chemical treatments—the Depo-Provera long-term contraceptive injection and the Methotrexate-Misoprostol abortifacient. Both drugs present grave hazards to women’s health, according to a battery of recent clinical tests.

The Coming Pro-Life Generation

The following quote is from journalist Robert McCartney, a self professed pro-choicer, writing in the Washington Post about his experience at the National March for Life last week.

I went to the March for Life rally Friday on the Mall expecting to write about its irrelevance. Isn’t it quaint, I thought, that these abortion protesters show up each year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, even though the decision still stands after 37 years. What’s more, with a Democrat in the White House likely to appoint justices who support abortion rights, surely the Supreme Court isn’t going to overturn Roe in the foreseeable future.

How wrong I was. The antiabortion movement feels it’s gaining strength, even if it’s not yet ready to predict ultimate triumph, and Roe supporters (including me) are justifiably nervous.

As always, we in Washington enjoy an up-close view of the health of various causes because of the city’s role as the nation’s most important setting for political demonstrations. In this case, I was especially struck by the large number of young people among the tens of thousands at the march. It suggests that the battle over abortion will endure for a long time to come.

“We are the pro-life generation,” said signs carried by the crowd, about half its members appearing to be younger than 30. . . .

Activists who support abortion rights conceded that there’s less energy among young people on their side of the debate.

“Unfortunately, I feel my generation is a little complacent,” said Amanda Pelletier, 20, co-director of the abortion rights group at American University. “It just doesn’t seem to be a very hip issue.”

The battle is hard, war is long, but we are winning!

Hat Tip: Vitamin Z, Gene Edward Veith

The Evil Cannot Be Hidden

Are the foundations of "the Culture of Death" starting to crumble?

Albert Mohler has written a article about news this week regarding two unlikely testimonies against unthinking acceptance of abortion as simply a "choice" or "right": reporter Sarah Kliff and actress Kourtney Kardashian.
Kliff wrote of discomfort after witnessing an abortion. Kardashian told of her decision to not abort her baby.

Please look at the entire piece - Rethinking Abortion -- Two Unexpected Witnesses.

The final paragraph

"The Culture of Death looms as a massive threat, but its foundations are crumbling. Unexpected witnesses such as Sarah Kliff and Kourtney Kardashian help us to see how moral insight can emerge from unexpected experiences, reflections, and witnesses. Some of the most profound witnesses to the horror of abortion and the sanctity of human life do not even know that they are so. The evil of abortion cannot be hidden once it is seen, and a voice for life cannot be forgotten once it is heard."

Oh Lord, turn our culture away from death to embrace life!

Abortion -- Liberating Women or Empowering Men?

For so long we have been told that Abortion rights are all about liberation for women and the freedom for women to "choose." Albert Mohler pointed out today that The Hidden Reality of Abortion is that abortion frees men from their responsibilities and traps women in sexual second class citizenship. Excerpt below:

One of the most insidious aspects of the abortion controversy has been the success of the feminist movement in presenting abortion on demand as a matter central to the liberation of women. The feminist logic suggests that women can never be seen as equal to men in terms of career so long as the "risk" and reality of pregnancy and motherhood are present. As the feminists argue, abortion becomes a mechanism for leveling the playing field and for liberating women.

As far back as the 1970s, at least some feminists saw through this logic. Catherine MacKinnon, a radical feminist legal scholar, argued that legal abortion would merely facilitate the "heterosexual availability" of women. In other words, abortion would be a benefit to men, who would be liberated to take sexual advantage of women, knowing that the availability of legal abortion would effectively remove their risk of the entanglements that would come with pregnancy and parenthood....

....The obvious question is this -- how is it that feminists, the abortion industry, and the advocates of abortion rights get away with their claim that abortion liberates women? In truth, the availability of abortion has served to liberate irresponsible men from duty, morality, and responsibility. Of course, the even greater tragedy is the death of unborn children by the millions. Only the Culture of Death would present the slaughter of the innocents as liberation.