by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Another Philadelphia abortionist testified for the prosecution today in Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial. While pro-choice bloggers are crowing about access to abortion in Philadelphia, today’s witness notes that he is one of 4 abortionists left in the city:
  

  Dr. Charles Benjamin is one of about four abortion providers left in Philadelphia in the wake of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s arrest two years ago. His testimony was received by “an influx of reporters.”

  Benjamin, by his own count, has performed 40,000 abortions over a 30-year career. He doesn’t do them after 21 weeks, or three weeks shy of the 24-week limit in Pennsylvania, he said.

  Gosnell is accused of performing illegal, late-term abortions and running a dangerously outdated clinic staffed by untrained workers. Benjamin said that he has registered nurses on staff to monitor patients, and that only he or a nurse anesthetist give anesthesia, unlike Gosnell’s clinic, where workers hired to clean instruments or handle paperwork have testified that Gosnell trained them to administer potent intravenous drugs….

  An influx of reporters attended the trial Monday, spurred by criticism that some broadcasters were not covering the trial. A gag order prevents lawyers from speaking outside and no cameras are allowed inside the courtroom.

• James Taranto’s best of the web column is focused on Gosnell today:
  

  Some pro-abortion commentators have denied that the horrors of the Women’s Medical Society [pictured left] implicate their ideology. While they have little to say about the babies Gosnell allegedly killed, they certainly don’t approve of the way he treated his pregnant patients, at least two of whom, according to the grand jury, ended up dead, with untold others mutilated or infected. No, these advocates assure us, they want abortion to be “safe and legal.” (The Clintonian “rare” is not heard anymore. In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed last month, Kate Michelman of NARAL Pro-Choice America came right out and said that she wants abortion to be “common.”)

  But the grand jury – which described its members as covering “a spectrum of personal beliefs about the morality of abortion” – directly blamed “pro-choice” politics for the regulatory failure that allowed the clinic to remain open for decades….

• The Philadelphia Inquirer has a piece on how Gosnell cared for his turtles and fish. While I’ve seen at least one individual claim it’s a puff piece which promotes Gosnell, I see it as highlighting the absurd nature of a man who cared more for turtles and fish than infants who survived abortion:
  

  … [D]ominating the waiting room… were huge glass tanks containing Gosnell’s collection of angel fish and turtles.

  Their importance to the 72-year-old doctor was evident at 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2010 when a task force of state and federal agents raided Gosnell’s clinic as part of a probe of illegal trafficking in prescription narcotics….

  Gosnell was met by the agents as he arrived at his clinic. He… carried a bag containing his dinner in one hand and a large, brown-paper shopping bag in the other.

  Gosnell… asked if he could bring his dinner while he answered questions in his office. Certainly, the detective replied. Could he put his clams in the refrigerator? Gosnell asked.

  The large shopping bag was filled with fresh clams and, again, the detective said yes.

  Gosnell put the bag in the refrigerator but emerged with two clams. Wood said he walked to one of the aquariums, cracked open the clams on the spot and began dropping pieces of clam meat into the water for the hungry turtles….

  That night was the last for Gosnell’s medical clinic although he still had access to the building and continued caring for his wildlife until January 2011 when he and nine employees were charged with performing illegal late-abortions. Gosnell was charged with murdering fetuses born live and has been in custody ever since.

[Photos via philly.com and buytaert.net]