Abortion Doctor Gets 3 Life Sentences for Baby Murders

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A Philadelphia doctor was sent to prison on Wednesday to serve three life terms without parole for murdering babies during late-term abortions and other crimes at his squalid clinic.

In a deal that spared him from the death penalty, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, faced a judge in a two-day sentencing at Philadelphia Common Pleas Court after waiving his right to appeal his conviction on three counts of first-degree murder.

Graphic trial testimony about Gosnell’s actions at the now-shuttered Women’s Medical Society Clinic in West Philadelphia, which served a predominantly black and low-income community, cast a spotlight on the controversial practice of late-term abortions.


A seven-woman, five-man jury convicted Gosnell on Monday in the case that focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed. A clinic worker testified during the trial that the doctor had delivered live babies during botched late-term abortions and cut their spinal cords.
Gosnell’s defense had claimed there was no evidence that the babies were alive after they were aborted and that any noise or movement would have been involuntary spasms.

Jurors speaking publicly for the first time said after the sentencing on Wednesday that the trial, which lasted more than two months, was emotionally draining.
“There was a lot to deal with,” said jury foreman David Misko, 27. Asked why the jurors agreed to convict Gosnell on first-degree murder charges, he said they found that the doctor’s actions were premeditated.

“It was business as usual,” Misko said. “He snipped the necks no matter what happened.”

Gosnell was sentenced on Wednesday to a life term in the murder of Baby A, whom a clinic worker said the doctor had described as “big enough to walk me to the bus stop.”
He had previously been sentenced late on Tuesday to two life terms in the murders of Baby C and Baby D.

With three capital murder convictions, Gosnell faced a potential death penalty. The same jury was to decide his fate next week, but the sentencing deal eliminated that possibility.

Gosnell was also sentenced on Wednesday to up to five years for the involuntary manslaughter of a patient, Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion.
He also was sentenced to up to 20 years each for two conspiracy charges in the babies’ deaths and a charge of running a corrupt organization.
Testimony depicted a filthy clinic that prosecutors called a “house of horrors.”

Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are in jail awaiting sentencing later this month. They include Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.