Pennsylvania abortionist Kermit Gosnell died in prison in early March. He was serving a life sentence imposed in 2013 for manslaughter and three counts of murder. May God have mercy on his soul.
The only reason his deeds came to light was that drug enforcement agents raided his abortion facility on suspicion of drugs being illegally dispensed. The agents found things they hadn’t expected: a filthy facility, an ill-trained staff, and the remains of more than 40 human beings. At that time abortion was legal in Pennsylvania up to 24 weeks, and still Gosnell found ways to mock that law.
After he was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, who came to his facility for an abortion in 2009 and ended up drugged to death, and after he was convicted of the murders of three children whose necks he snipped after they were born alive despite his attempts to abort them, he had this to say: “I believed my deeds were in a war against discrimination, disenfranchisement, undereducation and poverty.” (That was in correspondence with a reporter during a series of jailhouse interviews in late 2013.)
That was a long time ago. I have no way of knowing if he ever had a change of heart. God knows, and that’s enough.
The grand jury report
The grand jury report that led to Gosnell’s indictment and trial ran to more than 200 pages. It’s worth reading in full. The full text is at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2015/15-274/15-274-1.pdf.
Let us say right up front that we realize this case will be used by those on both sides of the abortion debate. We ourselves cover a spectrum of personal beliefs about the morality of abortion. For us as a criminal grand jury, however, the case is not about that controversy; it is about disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of mothers and infants. We find common ground in exposing what happened here, and in recommending measures to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. (Grand Jury report, page 1)
Once Gosnell’s crimes came to light, there was public revulsion and indignation, for a time. It faded. I’ve sometimes wondered if his snipping of the born-alive babies’ spines simply grossed people out as a matter of poor taste. If the objections to that outrage were based on something stronger, there would be born-alive infant protection statutes in every state. As of 2026, thirteen years after Gosnell’s conviction, that isn’t the case.
The media and the trial
Gosnell’s 2013 trial was covered by Philadelphia news outlets, as a local crime story. But surely there would be more attention, in view of the nature of the charges…? The court set aside several rows of seats just for reporters.
Result: crickets. Empty seats.
Two journalists were embarrassed enough for their professional brethren to take action. JD Mullane, then a columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, included in one of his reports a photo of the empty rows of seats set aside for reporters. Kirsten Powers, then a contributor to Fox News, published a nationally-syndicated column decrying the lack of coverage for the trial, noting that there was far more to it than a local-crime angle.
After those two journalists did their jobs, others finally paid attention. Gosnell’s conviction was national news.
JD Mullane is still around, very much a working journalist, and he took note of Gosnell’s death in an understated column posted at phillyburbs.com.
This post is excerpted from Braided Trails.
If the Gosnell case is new to you, I recommend the 25-minute documentary, 3801 Lancaster, available on YouTube. The book Gosnell: the Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer is worth your time; don’t be put off by its sensationalistic title. I reviewed the book shortly after its publication.
Ellen Kolb 