Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Business

Philadelphia Abortion Doctor Sentenced to Life in Prison

The Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three infants during illegal third-trimester procedures was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

State court Judge Jeffrey Minehart imposed a life sentence today for one infant after sentencing Kermit Gosnell yesterday to two consecutive life terms for the other two. The sentences come after Gosnell, 72, who faced the possibility of the death penalty, agreed to waive all of his appellate rights in exchange for life in prison.

Jurors on May 13 found Gosnell guilty of first-degree murder for killing the newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. He was acquitted in the death of a fourth infant that prosecutors said had been born alive.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell a “monster” and said the case was “the most gruesome, the most vile” in his tenure.

“Kermit Gosnell will never kill another baby,” Williams said at a press conference after today’s sentencing. “He will never again subject poor women to barbaric procedures performed in squalor under less-than-third-world conditions due solely to his greed.”

Gosnell was arrested along with nine employees in January 2011 and charged with performing late-term abortions in filthy conditions at his Women’s Medical Society clinic.

The charges followed an investigation begun in 2010 after drug agents raided the facility and uncovered the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Virginia resident who went into cardiac arrest after clinic employees gave her lethal doses of the narcotic Demerol.

‘House of Horrors’

Investigators found women being treated in squalid conditions with old equipment and outdated drugs, prosecutors said. They described the clinic in West Philadelphia as a “house of horrors” with floors and walls stained with cat urine and blood.

Gosnell, who was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Mongar’s death, was sentenced to as much as five years for that crime with the sentence to run consecutively with his life terms. Jurors found him guilty of more than 200 other counts for related crimes including violating a 24-hour waiting period before performing abortions.

Jack McMahon, Gosnell’s attorney, said today the doctor agreed to the life sentence because he wanted to spare his family from testifying during a penalty hearing.

Accepted Fate

“He’s resigned and accepted his fate and he didn’t want his family coming here and facing the media and having to be exposed in that fashion,” McMahon said.

Gosnell declined to speak today in court when given the opportunity. Minehart also sentenced him to concurrent 10- to 20-year terms in prison for conspiracy and running a corrupt organization. Minehart gave no further punishment for violating the 24-hour informed consent law.

McMahon said he doesn’t yet know which prison Gosnell will be assigned to serve his term.

Eight employees, including Gosnell’s wife, pleaded guilty before the trial to related crimes. They’re awaiting sentencing.

A co-defendant, Eileen O’Neill, convicted of theft by deception and conspiracy for practicing at the clinic without a license, is scheduled to be sentenced July 15.

The case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Gosnell, CP-51-CR-0001667-2011, Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County (Philadelphia).

(Updates with prosecutor’s comments in fourth paragraph.)