Gosnell was a "doctor" in Philadelphia who provided late-term abortions for women. Long story short, he occasionally just delivered babies and killed them post-birth (that's called "infanticide" - not "abortion"). He also killed women from lack of appropriate medical care and seemed to have no standards for basic medical hygiene. The whole thing sounds horrific, and it is.
But does this horror exemplify how awful abortion clinics are?
No. Quite the opposite. This case exemplifies everything that is wrong with abortion restrictions.
Prior to Roe v. Wade, this kind of scenario was common. Since abortion wasn't legal, women would resort to illegal abortions that were often performed by incompetent people in filthy conditions. It would not have been uncommon in these cases for a woman to die from complications of the abortion. Many of these women were already mothers, who left several other children motherless.
When women don't have access to legal, safe abortion, they will instead turn to illegal butchers like Gosnell. And if they are not able to access first-term abortions because of draconian restrictions on their ability to do so, then they will seek out illegal, late-term abortions. Similarly, if women get no assistance in paying for first-trimester abortions, they will likely wait until they've saved up enough money (if that's even possible) and will be in their 2nd or 3rd trimester before they have their abortion.
If we really and truly want to stop people like Gosnell, and not just make ourselves feel better, we need to ensure that women actually have ACCESS to the full range of reproductive services to begin with. Implying that people like Gosnell are a product of legalized abortion is just false. On the contrary, he and his ilk are products of the severely reduced access to abortion that faces the low-income women of this country. And until we change that, we will continue to see people like Gosnell fill the void.
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Let's keep it civil people.