Two Abortion Workers Convicted of Murder

Women's Medical Society

Snipping
by Robert A. Waters

“By day it was a prescription mill; by night an abortion mill.” So read the 286 page grand jury report concerning the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia.

The report went on to describe conditions at the clinic. “[It] reeked of animal urine, courtesy of the cats that were allowed to roam (and defecate) freely. Furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments were not properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not disposed of; they were reused, over and over again. Medical equipment--such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse oximeter, the blood pressure cuff--was generally broken; even when it worked, it wasn’t used. The emergency exit was padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags and plastic jugs, were fetal remains. It was a baby charnel house.”

None of the staff had the credentials to do their jobs, including the clinic’s owner, Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

So it should have come as no surprise when Karnamaya Mongar died a horrible, unnecessary death.

Or when investigators learned that hundreds, if not thousands, of babies may have been born in the clinic and murdered by “snipping.” The word was coined by Dr. Gosnell to describe how he and his staff killed children. The grand jury report states that “[they] regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy--and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.”

On the afternoon of November 19, 2009, Mongar’s daughter brought her to the clinic to have an abortion. She and her family had come to the United States just four months earlier after spending 20 years in a Nepal refugee camp. She’d been pregnant for about 19 weeks.

When she entered the clinic, Mongar initialed several forms (even though she didn’t understand English), including one which stated that Dr. Gosnell had counseled her concerning the hazards of having an abortion and stating that she had waited 24 hours before continuing with the “procedure.” (State law mandates the 24-hour waiting period.)

Dr. Gosnell wasn’t even at the clinic. As usual, he didn’t arrive until nearly nine o’clock, so his staff administered the pre-surgical medications. Sometime during the afternoon, Mongar died of a drug overdose. Although staff attempted to cover up the type and amount of medicine given to Mongar, an autopsy revealed that she had deadly levels of Demerol in her system. Promethazine and diazepam were also found.

"The evidence presented to the grand jury established that Karnamaya Mongar died of cardiac arrest because she was overdosed with Demerol," the grand jurors said.

Last week, Sherry West, 52, pled guilty to third degree murder for her role in the death of Mongar.

Adrienne Moton, 34, pled guilty to third degree murder for killing a baby born in a toilet at the clinic. A co-worker said the baby was moving and looked like it was swimming. "Moton reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck," the grand jury said in its report.

Seven more staff members, including Dr. Gosnell, are to be tried for Mongar's death and a series of gruesome baby murders. West has agreed to testify against Gosnell.

Those responsible for the death of Karnamaya Mongar should be punished severely.

No punishment, however, is harsh enough for those proven to have “snipped” the spinal column of a baby.