Why The Pa. Abortion Doc's Case Is About Poverty, Not Roe v. Wade

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Depending on where people fall in the reproductive rights vs. fetal rights debate, their views on abortion doctors are different. To some, these doctors are heroic figures, helping needy women in the face of considerable public opprobrium, if not death threats. To others, they're taking away the lives of the yet-to-be-born. But if the grand-jury report released Wednesday by the Philadelphia district attorney is to be believed, abortion provider Dr. Kermit Gosnell would be hard for anyone to defend. (Warning: the following story is quite disturbing.) (More on Time.com: National Abortion Rates Plateau, While Protests Increase)

Gosnell, 69, operated a clinic called the Women's Medical Society in a low-income neighborhood in West Philadelphia, until the clinic was closed early in 2010. Authorities raided the place last February, after it was fingered as a source of illegal oxycontin prescriptions. There, they stumbled across the appalling conditions at the abortion clinic, which sparked a full investigation. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

Semiconscious, moaning women sat in dirty recliners and on bloodstained blankets. The air reeked of urine from the flea-infested cats permitted to roam the clinic. There was blood on the floor and cat feces on the stairs. One investigator likened the scene to "a bad gas-station restroom."

On Jan. 20 this year, Gosnell was formally charged. The Report of the Grand Jury includes further details on the doctor's practice that are so bizarre they could be plot points in one of those torture-porn movies that were popular a few years back. (Read the PDF here, but be warned of shocking images and content.) According to the report, investigators found:

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/20/why-the-pa-abortion-docs-case-is-about-poverty-not-roe-v-wade/#ixzz1Bgb3Xtl9