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cali

(114,904 posts)
Fri Apr 12, 2013, 06:19 PM Apr 2013

I am staunchly pro-choice so it pains me to agree with the anti-choicers [View all]

and the right on anything at all.

But they are right about the MSM not covering the Gosnell trial. If I had to speculate as to why, I'd say it's because most editors and journalists in the MSM are pro-choice and they don't want to cover something that they fear could damage the pro-choice side. I don't know.

In any case, no major news organization has sent a reporter to the trial. There has been little coverage and no, it's not merely local story. But it's also NOT about how awful abortion is. It's about one unlicensed butcher and the appalling things he did. So appalling that I'll provide a link but I won't post it here. It's also about a mind boggling failure on the part of the state of PA.

If for nothing else, this should be a national story for how Gosnell perpetrated these horrific acts without being shut down.

<snip>

The first line of defense was the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The department's job is to audit hospitals and outpatient medical facilities, like Gosnell's, to make sure that they follow the rules and provide safe care. The department had contact with the Women's Medical Society dating back to 1979, when it first issued approval to open an abortion clinic. It did not conduct another site review until 1989, ten years later. Numerous violations were already apparent, but Gosnell got a pass when he promised to fix them. Site reviews in 1992 and 1993 also noted various violations, but again failed to ensure they were corrected.

But at least the department had been doing something up to that point, however ineffectual. After 1993, even that pro form a effort came to an end. Not because of administrative ennui, although there had been plenty. Instead, the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all... The only exception to this live-and-let-die policy was supposed to be for complaints dumped directly on the department's doorstep. Those, at least, would be investigated. Except that there were complaints about Gosnell, repeatedly. Several different attorneys, representing women injured by Gosnell, contacted the department. A doctor from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the department that numerous patients he had referred for abortions came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The medical examiner of Delaware County informed the department that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the department received official notice that a woman named Karnamaya Mongar had died at Gosnell's hands.

Yet not one of these alarm bells - not even Mrs. Mongar's death - prompted the department to look at Gosnell or the Women's Medical Society... But even this total abdication by the Department of Health might not have been fatal. Another agency with authority in the health field, the Pennsylvania Department of State, could have stopped Gosnell single-handedly.
<snip>
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/why-dr-kermit-gosnells-trial-should-be-a-front-page-story/274944/

Gosnell murdered hundreds of baby's during his 20 year stint. And yes, the moment a fetus takes a breath, it becomes a baby.
He butchered scores of women.

<snip>

For this isn't solely a story about babies having their heads severed, though it is that. It is also a story about a place where, according to the grand jury, women were sent to give birth into toilets; where a doctor casually spread gonorrhea and chlamydiae to unsuspecting women through the reuse of cheap, disposable instruments; an office where a 15-year-old administered anesthesia; an office where former workers admit to playing games when giving patients powerful narcotics; an office where white women were attended to by a doctor and black women were pawned off on clueless untrained staffers. Any single one of those things would itself make for a blockbuster news story. Is it even conceivable that an optometrist who attended to his white patients in a clean office while an intern took care of the black patients in a filthy room wouldn't make national headlines?

<snip>


36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The real story here is economic and political. Lack of funding for abortions for poor women: Cali_Democrat Apr 2013 #1
this case doesn't make much of an argument for anti-choicers, though Spider Jerusalem Apr 2013 #2
I think a big piece of the story is the lack of oversight by state agencies cali Apr 2013 #4
It's an important story. Most local dailies aren't likely to pick up ongoing coverage of the trial Brickbat Apr 2013 #3
Huh? This is not about choice or anti-choice. DURHAM D Apr 2013 #5
No, of course it's not a story about choice cali Apr 2013 #6
Yep. redqueen Apr 2013 #9
The media looked the other way because it is about women. DURHAM D Apr 2013 #13
That's what I think too. nt redqueen Apr 2013 #19
The reason the MSM has not covered it is because the victims don't matter. DURHAM D Apr 2013 #11
that clearly is a significant part of my takeaway, genius. cali Apr 2013 #12
Your title and emphasis is still bogus. DURHAM D Apr 2013 #15
No, they're not bogus. and your saying so doesn't make it true. duh. cali Apr 2013 #17
Your OP takes the side of anti-choicers. DURHAM D Apr 2013 #20
ridiculous. gad. cali Apr 2013 #33
I know you have 78K posts but anyone and everyone is still free DURHAM D Apr 2013 #35
this has jackshit to do with the number of posts. duh. cali Apr 2013 #36
The other victims . . . YarnAddict Apr 2013 #25
Tom Ridge ananda Apr 2013 #7
Agreed. Deep down, every pro-choice person LittleBlue Apr 2013 #8
what? No. I don't look at it that way cali Apr 2013 #14
wrong DURHAM D Apr 2013 #16
"Deep down, every anti-choice person knows REP Apr 2013 #31
The poor end up with the least competent medical help it seems. Cleita Apr 2013 #10
yes. and that this guy had a waiting room for white patients cali Apr 2013 #18
This is one of the reasons why single payer or Medicare for All was promoted Cleita Apr 2013 #21
The non-reporting has nothing to do with the choice/anti-choice angle..it has to do with a gag order msanthrope Apr 2013 #22
I think we aren't hearing about it... ljm2002 Apr 2013 #23
Um, I don't think so YarnAddict Apr 2013 #26
Well you could be right... ljm2002 Apr 2013 #29
it is a brutal murder case. Abortion is only tangentially related. IfPalinisAnswerWatsQ Apr 2013 #24
"18-24 inches long with no eyes, or face"? HockeyMom Apr 2013 #27
I am not suprised. Niceguy1 Apr 2013 #28
Go ahead and ban abortion, antis AnnieBW Apr 2013 #30
This is what the Grand Jury had to say about the lack of inspections... nessa Apr 2013 #32
I've heard about this story since 2011. JaneyVee Apr 2013 #34
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