Q: Why Is Gosnell in the News? A: Guilt

So many lies, where to begin?

We at DJ! predicted it the day after the story broke in January 2011. Kermit Gosnell would become the Fetus Fetishist Anti-Hero.

And the myth just keeps growing.

First, some facts. It is a gruesome story of greed, exploitation, desperation, poverty, drug abuse, gross regulatory incompetence, and not a little insanity.

You can read the grisly details at the Wiki link but here's the upshot.

In 2011, Gosnell, alongside various co-defendant employees, was charged with eight counts of murder resulting in part from gross medical malpractice in treatment of patients at his clinic, as well as 24 felony counts of illegal abortions beyond the 24 week limit, and charged with 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. The murder charges related to a patient who died while under his care and seven newborns said to have been killed after being born alive during attempted abortions. In May 2013, he was convicted on three of the murder charges, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. After his conviction, Gosnell waived his right of appeal in exchange for an agreement not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

That was last year and one would like to think that the state of Pennsylvania cleaned up its act so as to prevent any recurrence. Sadly but unsurprisingly no.

Will Pennsylvania learn anything from this experience? No, says Brenda Green. As I write, the state legislature has fast-tracked a bill that will ban any insurance plan that covers abortion from insurance exchanges set up under healthcare reform. That means more women forced to pay for abortion out of pocket—and more customers for unscrupulous providers. “That Gosnell was able to get away with his horrific practice does not prove new regulations are needed,” says Susan Schewel, executive director of the Women’s Medical Fund, which helps low-income women pay for their abortions. “It shows we need to enforce the laws we have.”

So why is the case in the news again?

Here's Ezra LeRant, claiming that Gosnell is the WORST EVER serial murderer (he's not and not by a very long chalk) that no one has ever heard of. And no one has heard of him because of media censorship! [Insert obligatory pearl-clutching Ezra-SHRIEK here.]

And here are two more Canadian bandwagon jumpers: ProWomanProLie and the frog on Brian Lilley's pad.

The occasion is that a couple of Irish "conservative" documentary-makers are trying to raise the dough for a made-for-TV movie about Gosnell. Note that these grifters' work includes attacking climate-change science and most recently the effects of fracking so an even-handed treatment of this subject seems unlikely.

After claiming censorship at KickStarter, they wound up at IndieGogo where they have raised $1.877 million with 8 days left on a $2.1 million goal.

And hey, now they have Sarah Palin on board too.

On Twitter there's a frantic effort among supporters to get to the goal before the deadline or all is lost. As far as I can tell, all these frantic supporters are fetus fetishists. (Check out #Gosnell and #GosnellMovie.)

I asked, because I'm truly curious, why do they think this movie needs to be made, what good would be served?

The answers aren't very clear. They continue to assert that there was a media black-out of the case. (This is a lie.) And that consequently "no one" knows about it.

At the Lilley link, there's a clip showing the filmmakers asking Any Old Assholes, or AOAs, (I have it on good authority that that is proper journalistic parlance) whether they can recognize a photo of Gosnell. Of course they can't, though one trooper ventures "Nelson Mandela?"

On Twitter one person said indignantly that a friend of his (?) had never heard of Gosnell until s/he told him/her. And now s/he is outraged. Why not send friend links to stories? I wondered. "Because print is dead," I was told. Um, OK.

They claim that there are hundreds, thousands, zillions of Gosnells out there and that pro-aborts are protecting them.

That would be another "no". Here is an account of responsible people, many of them abortion providers, trying to alert authorities to Gosnell's horror house. And here's an excerpt from a book detailing the National Association of Abortion Providers' dealings with Gosnell. (He wanted to join. They said: No Fucking Way.)

So what's the motivation here? Are they simply being revved by the likes of LifeShite and Big Nurse Stanek? Well, yes, of course.

Are these just RWNJ slacktivists thinking they're accomplishing something from their couches? No doubt.

But I think there's more to it. I think somewhere deep down there's a dim understanding that they themselves enabled Gosnell and by means of further idiotic regulations and laws, both onerous and picayune, are creating more of his kind.

They themselves are the authors of suffering, exploitation, and needless death.

It's simple guilt.