Abortion Killer Case Proves Need for Abortion Rights

It’s not surprising that anti-abortion advocates are touting the case of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia doctor accused of murdering babies and abusing patients. But they’re utterly wrong, writes Michelle Goldberg in the Daily Beast. Gosnell’s clinic was not typical—that’s why he was rejected from the National Abortion Federation, which testified against him to the grand jury. “In fact, Gosnell’s crimes only underline the need for all women to have access to affordable and genuinely safe providers.”

This horrific “clinic” had blood on the floors, smelled of urine, and was filled with the moans of semi-conscious patients. “No woman would subject herself to such a place if she thought she had somewhere else to go,” Goldberg argues. Gosnell preyed mostly on the poor, on immigrants, and on minors who needed to skirt parental consent laws. “When abortion is shrouded in shame, excluded from public health-insurance programs, and made harder to get because of a web of legal restrictions, horror ensues.” (More abortion stories.)