by Jonathon Van Maren
Note: Read CCBR's eyewitness coverage of the Gosnell Trial here and here.
Today Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the abortionist butcher from Philadelphia on trial for snipping the necks of born-alive infants among hundreds of other charges, has been found guilty on three counts of first degree murder and one count of third degree murder. I’m sure the pro-choice spin doctors are already at work drafting press releases announcing that they are in oh-so-hearty agreement with the verdict due to Gosnell’s unorthodox and unsanitary methods of practicing the barbarism they champion, but make no mistake: This verdict is a victory for all those who value human life in all its forms.
I have to say I’m surprised. There is a mountain of evidence illustrating the fact that infanticide in North America is increasingly accepted by many in the political realm and medical community as really, really late-term abortions. Medical professionals have been suggesting that “post-birth abortion” might be okay, if not desirable. America re-elected a president who openly voted against the Illinois “Born-Alive Infants Act,” specifically designed to protect babies such as Gosnell’s victims. An Edmonton judge gave an Alberta woman a suspended sentence for strangling her newborn and tossing him over the fence due to Canada’s relaxed views on abortion. Live Action’s “Inhuman” expose project has revealed many abortionists who openly admit that babies surviving abortion are either left to die or actively killed.
And of course, Canada’s own Stephen Harper, recently referred to in the Ottawa Citizen as the “de facto leader of Canada’s pro-choice movement,” responded to the revelation that 491 babies had been born alive and subsequently died after abortion procedures in Canada between 2000 and 2009 by ignoring the issue entirely. When asked about it in the House of Commons, he stated that, “All members of this House, whether they agree with it or not, understand that abortion is legal in Canada and this government, myself included, have made it very clear that the government does not intend to change the law in this regard.”
Inside the womb, outside the womb. To abortion status devotees, it’s hairsplitting. Gosnell actively butchered abortion survivors, while Stephen Harper seems content to simply reiterate abortion’s legality, implicitly classifying the deaths of born alive infants as abortion victims. To be fair, they are. But the brutal truth is that our prime minister seems perfectly willing to give abortion practitioners who might be inclined to engage in what we’ll refer to as “Gosnell tactics” a free pass. That door marked “abortion debate”? Stay away from it. It’s messy. In fact, don’t even go near it—the blood leaking under the door looks slippery.
But finally, excruciating evidence of abortion barbarism has pricked the right consciences, and Kermit Gosnell will be facing at minimum a lengthy prison sentence, if not the death penalty, which Pennsylvania permits. Abortion victims have been recognized as people in need of justice, not trash in need of cremation. That is a significant victory.
Keep in mind that many of the things Dr. Gosnell is charged with are legal in Canada, where abortion is legal up until birth. Canada’s own infanticide victims have been ignored by our law enforcement officials and our prime minister.
It’s up to the pro-life movement to make them impossible to ignore. It’s up to us to push for justice for the victims of Canada’s abortionists.
