Steyn: Media silence on abortion and infanticide reflects on America
In 2011, I wrote about mass murder at Kermit Gosnell’s abortion “clinic”:
… A man is killing actual living, gurgling, bouncing babies on an industrial scale – and it barely makes the papers.
Had he plunged his scissors into the spinal cord of a Democrat politician in Arizona, then The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC and everyone else would be linking it to Sarah Palin’s uncivil call for dramatic cuts in government spending.
But “Doctor” Kermit Gosnell’s mound of corpses is apparently entirely unconnected to the broader culture.
And so it goes two years on, at “Doctor” Gosnell’s trial….
… [T]he New York Times’ only story on the case is punctilious enough to refer to Gosnell’s victims as “viable fetuses,” and its early paragraphs emphasize the defense’s wearily predictable line that this is a “racist prosecution.” Instead of my Arizona comparison, what about Sandy Hook?
One solitary act of mass infanticide by a mentally-ill loner calls into question the constitutional right to guns, but a sustained conveyor belt of infanticide by an entire cadre of cold-blooded killers apparently has no implications for the constitutional right to abortion….
Gosnell’s murderous regime in Philadelphia reflects on him. The case’s all but total absence from the public discourse reflects on America.
~ Mark Steyn (pictured), National Review Online, March 20
[Photo via last.fm]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
America–land so deceived, home so depraved?
“Reproductive health”–mothers will kill for it.
Just makes me so ill.. can’t even read this today.
[T]he New York Times’ only story on the case is punctilious enough to refer to Gosnell’s victims as “viable fetuses,” and its early paragraphs emphasize the defense’s wearily predictable line that this is a “racist prosecution.”
Weren’t most of Gosnell’s pre-natal victims non-caucasian?
The defense attorney claiming Gosnell is a victim of racially motivated prosecution is little bit like the cracked chamber pot calling the kettle a misogyinistic honeybucket.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/how_alleged_butcher_kermit_gosnell_got_over–and_poor_women_of_color_paid_the_price.html
“If I hadn’t read the grand jury report, I’d have trouble believing the grisly story of late-term abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell M.D. The West Philadelphia family physician’s alleged crimes were so flagrant, so violent, so sick, they seem like the stuff of anti-choice urban legend.”
“But there, in 280 macabre pages, you can see how the 69-year-old and his staff of unqualified medical assistants and faux doctors routinely took patients who were well over the legal limit of 24 weeks pregnant, overdosed them with Demerol, induced labor, delivered their babies, then “ensured fetal demise” by cutting their spinal cords with scissors.”
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/kermit-gosnell/inside-the-clinic.html
The Crime Library of TruTV.com, for which I write, has very prominently displayed stories about Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors.”
Rachel Maddow, where is your outrage? I am sure some of those “viable fetuses” were female and lesbian.
Waiting……..
As his attorney pointed out, Kermit Gosnell wasn’t running the Mayo Clinic. His patients were usually poor women. His attorney appears to suggest that butchery should be the accepted order of the day for the impoverished. Blood all over the walls and floors. A flea-infested cat walking through the clinic leaving feces on the floors. Medical instruments taken from one patient to another sans sterilization so he transmitted STDs from one to another. Routinely fudging reports on ultrasounds so the patients don’t know how far along they are.
No, not exactly the Mayo Clinic.
Bravo, Mark Steyn. Love that man. Our country used to be made of men with such courage and integrity. Not anymore.
Mark, you are the Australian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, warning America of the consequences of her moral decline. God bless you, keep up the good work!
Mark Steyn is Canadian and was educated in Great Britain (hence the accent remnants).
Gosnell is a women’s rights champion of Tiller like standards. Hopefully the state will execute this guy so that the citizens don’t have to.
The tools of abortion should be banned. Where are you on this, Mayor Bloomberg, and VP Biden?
I know everyone hated by contraceptives in the H2O fantasy but the basis of it is this: If women have to jump through a series of hoops in order to get pregnant, they are probably going to be highly motivated to carry that pregnancy to term. This is why I like the idea of a woman being rendered sterile and then having to go through a special and somewhat complex procedure in order to un-sterilize herself and get pregnant. Yes, this doesn’t sit well with “My Body, My Choice.” I know that people are often absent-minded, impulsive, and foolish. That’s why I favor long-acting contraceptives such as Norplant, Depo-Provera, and the IUD: they don’t depend on the woman to remember to do something on a regular basis. This is also why I favor chaperoned dating. Left to their own devices, too many people goof and the results of the goofs are horrendous.
Left to their own devices, too many people goof and the results of the goofs are horrendous.
Don’t talk about my sister that way!
Lock him up n give him the death penalty … just like he gave the children he killed. The innocent children!
“….execute this guy so that the citizens don’t have to.’ - with 4 likes???
I think Mr Steyn has been taking the same creative writing class as Sarah Palin.
Reality, are you against the death penalty in all cases or just in the case of Gosnell?
In all cases.
Reality, did you read the grand jury report for yourself? I did. Read the grand jury report for yourself and then tell me you think the guy deserves to live.
I do not support the death penalty, that’s it.
Except for innocent children in utero.
If women have to jump through a series of hoops in order to get pregnant, they are probably going to be highly motivated to carry that pregnancy to term.
Not necessariily. Plenty of women who have IVF will abort when they find out their child has a genetic abnormality. If IVF isn’t jumping through hoops, I don’t know what is.
Except for innocent children in utero.
Exactly.
Not necessariily. Plenty of women who have IVF will abort when they find out their child has a genetic abnormality. If IVF isn’t jumping through hoops, I don’t know what is.
And surrogate-hiring families from whom birth mothers have to escape in order to save a child’s life.
“R” you must be from UK or AUS (not to mention your use of the word “whilst” which went out of style in the 1800s in the US)?
For the record I’m against the death penalty in ALL cases, especially when the “inmate’s” only “crime” is being conceived.
Kermit Gosnell exemplifies where embracing a culture of death leads us.
Gosnell’s race card defense is a hypocritical insult. As Ken says, most of his clients were Afro-American. And pro-abortionists have the nerve to call pro-life blacks sell outs?
The truth is, racial targeting of blacks (and Hispanics) is not isolated to Gosnell. Planned Parenthood is known to target blacks and Hispanics in locating their clinics, especially the ones that perform abortions:
http://www.learninc.org/
http://www.protectingblacklife.org/pp_targets/index.html
(The first is an informative website, the second is a map from another informative website, showing just where the targeting takes place.)
As to Kermit Gosnell, I struggle with it in some cases but ultimately don’t believe in the death penalty. Besides, I think death is too good and too easy for him. What he needs is a lifetime of incarceration so that he can’t hurt or kill anyone else. If possible, he should be able to do some kind of work from prison with money earned and saved being used to help his victims or going to pro-life causes. But there should be absolutely no parole ever.
Victor wrote, “As to Kermit Gosnell, I struggle with it in some cases but ultimately don’t believe in the death penalty. Besides, I think death is too good and too easy for him.”
(1) You do believe in justice, vengeance, and just deserts. But the fair penalty for taking somebody else’s life is forfeiting one’s own.
(2) You believe that the death penalty is more merciful than life imprisonment. That’s not usually what I hear from people who are against the death penalty.
(3) You don’t believe in hell. The civil government, though it carries out God’s justice, is far from perfect. But God is perfect, and on Judgement Day every deed, word, and thought will be finally and fairly rewarded. So even if Mr. Gosnell eludes justice now, he will still some day suffer for his evil life. (There is Somebody who can pardon him, however, but today is the day of salvation.)
Although I oppose the death penalty because I don’t want my society’s representatives to cold-bloodedly put a human being to death, regardless of how wicked that human being is, we have to consider what the real alternative is. It is life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. Can you imagine being 18 years old and knowing that you will NEVER get out of prison? What’s more, in the case of someone like child-murderer Jeremy Strohmeyer, he has to be isolated for his own protection from his fellow prisoners.
At a certain point, someone doing life might WANT to die. For example, Moors Murderer Ian Brady in Great Britain has campaigned for the right to starve himself to death. He is being force-fed.
I don’t think it contradicts opposition to the death penalty to believe that such murderers should be allowed to commit suicide if they wish. I would have no problem handing Ian Brady a fast-acting poison and waving bye-bye to him.
I believe we should give the government the right to “cold-bloodedly” execute virtually-certain convicted murderers. It’s more justified and proper than wars, which are always somewhat scattershot in their results.
Both are necessary and unpleasant – but not “evils” unless they were mistaken.
@ Hans Johnson: Murderer Ian Brady wants to die. Should he be handed poison for that purpose?
No, that is short-circuiting the process too much. No assisted suicide of any kind, unless it’s some bizarre movie situation where someone must be abandoned to certain torture.
Let his lawyer petition for his execution.
Hans Johnson says:
March 24, 2013 at 9:02 am
No, that is short-circuiting the process too much. No assisted suicide of any kind, unless it’s some bizarre movie situation where someone must be abandoned to certain torture. Let his lawyer petition for his execution.
(Denise) Britain has no death penalty. I was abolished about 3 months before he and crime partner Myra Hindley were arrested.
I say hand him poison and let him take it. He’s been in prison for 40 years. He has aptly written, “I’m going to die in this or some other garbage can.”
If someone reaches a point where living in prison is intolerable, and that person must be kept in prison, let that murderer commit suicide.