Investigators: Lack of Oversight Allowed Pa. 'Abortion Mill' to Operate

A Pennsylvania abortionist charged in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive committed murder in plain sight and was able to keep killing because of lack of oversight, according to a grand jury investigation.

"Pennsylvania is not a third-world country," the newly released grand jury report reads. "There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago. But none of them did, not even after [a patient's] death.

"In the end, Gosnell was only caught by accident, when police raided his offices to seize evidence of his illegal prescription selling," the report says.

On Feb. 18, 2010, the FBI and detectives from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office executed search warrants at Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, the Women's Medical Society, which catered to mostly poor, minority and immigrant women.

The clinic, which the grand jury calls an "abortion mill," had been under investigation for illegal prescription drug activity, but what investigators found inside proved to be far more troubling.

"Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses were scattered throughout the building," Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said during a news conference today. "A row of jars containing severed feet lined a shelf. Furniture and equipment was dusty, broken, [and] urine- and blood-stained. Untrained, unsupervised workers injected dangerous drugs into women undergoing illegal late-term abortions."

During the course of the drug-trafficking investigation, the district attorney's office learned that Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old woman who had recently immigrated to the U.S. from Nepal, had died inside the clinic in November 2009. Authorities later determined the cause of death was a fatal drug overdose that was allegedly administered during an abortion.

Investigators said they learned that Gosnell and members of his staff performed abortions beyond the 24-week limit prescribed by law. Prosecutors said Gosnell, a family physician, was not certified in obstetrics or gynecology.

"In case after case, Dr. Gosnell and his assistants induced labor; forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh and eighth month of pregnancy; and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of their necks with scissors and severing their spinal cords," Williams said.

Gosnell, 69, along with his wife and eight clinic workers were arrested Tuesday night, after the grand jury released the findings of its lengthy investigation into his clinic.

The abortion doctor now faces charges of third-degree murder in the death of Mongar and seven murder charges for the deaths of infants killed "after being born viable." In addition to the murder charges, Gosnell faces charges of infanticide, conspiracy, abuse of a corpse and several other related offenses.

Williams said he is not sure if he will seek the death penalty in the case.

Neither Gosnell, who is being held without bond, nor his attorney has commented on the most recent developments. In March, Gosnell denied any wrongdoing.

"I know that I have done my very best to provide the very best care to my patients," Gosnell told Philadelphia's Fox 29 WTXF.

Nevertheless, Gosnell, who also had a clinic in Delaware and a practice in New York, should have been caught long before the drug raid, the grand jury said in its findings. It placed partial blame on multiple agencies that allegedly ignored complaints about him and failed to visit or inspect his clinic since 1993.

According to the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Gosnell performed an estimated 5,754 abortions between 2004 and 2008. Prosecutors allege he earned about $15,000 a day.

The grand jury also claims complaints that were directly filed with various organizations -- some by attorneys who were representing patients of the clinic -- were not handled properly.

Gosnell has been named in more than three dozen civil suits going back 20 years. Of those, 10 are malpractice suits, the Fox News affiliate in Philadelphia reported.

According to Williams, Gosnell had "infected his patients with venereal diseases" and sent "woman after woman to the emergency room" with punctured uteri and intestines.

"We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion," the grand jury said.

While the agencies named by the grand jury were not found to be criminally liable, the grand jury did recommend further regulations be enacted and additional hearings be held.

"If oversight agencies expect to prevent future Dr. Gosnells, they must find the fortitude to enact and enforce the necessary regulations," the grand jury stated. "Rules must be more than words on paper."