by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Five abortion clinics in the Pittsburgh area have closed since Pennsylvania passed new abortion clinic regulations. Four of the clinics voluntarily shut down, while Stephen Brigham’s American Women Services was closed by the state. Planned Parenthood, always playing the victim, is complaining about the extra business:
  

  Two registered facilities remain in Pittsburgh, records show.

  “There’s just no providers,” [Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania spokeswoman Rebecca] Cavanaugh said.

  More women have flocked to Pittsburgh’s Planned Parenthood since the local closures, causing scheduling problems and later abortions for some, Cavanaugh said.

• A California man has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail for killing his girlfriend and unborn child (who, according to this article, was 22 weeks):
  

  A Colfax man who admitted he shot his romantic partner in the back, killing her and their unborn child, will be sentenced to 19 years, 8 months to life.

  That is the plea deal 37-year-old Lee Martin Konnerth [pictured left] reached with Placer County prosecutors in the May 15, 2011 murder of Sarah Lynn Burr and the couple’s baby.

• Daniel Henninger writes in the Wall Street Journal about Gosnell (pictured below right) and America’s current abortion law:
  

  Their verdict is that if a late-term baby is outside the womb and is alive, and if a doctor performs a procedure on the baby that causes it to die, that is murder in Pennsylvania. For which Kermit Gosnell is being spared the death penalty and going to prison for life.

That said, if in some states babies are inside the womb when procedures similar to Gosnell’s are done, that is legal. The piercing and snipping Gosnell performed isn’t something he invented. Later-term abortion isn’t an antiseptic procedure like getting a tooth pulled. It can be a difficult and complicated mess.

Medical science and skilled doctors keep pushing back the time babies can survive birth before they’ve reached full term. Rest assured that any doctor in the U.S. who performs abortions past 20 weeks is looking at the Gosnell verdict and wishing there was more clarity about what falls along the spectrum between a day at the office and first-degree murder.

• The investigation into abortionist Douglas Karpen is receiving local coverage as well as a blip in the New York Times:
  

  Late Wednesday, the Harris County District Attorney’s office confirmed it is investigating allegations reportedly made by the doctor’s former employees.

  This may become another high-profile case with high-profile politicians and political groups already involved. The D.A.’s office acknowledged the allegations are “very similar on the surface” to the case in Philadelphia.

  Here is KHOU’s local coverage video:

[Photos via CBS Sacramento and triblive.com]