Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for killing live infants at his clinic.
Gosnell, 72, killed the three viable infants by "snipping" their spinal cords at a clinic now known as a "House of Horrors."
He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old immigrant who died of an overdose of the painkiller Demerol in his clinic, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Gosnell was acquitted of a fourth count of first-degree murder of another infant. That baby was known as "Baby E" and allegedly let out a single "baby sound" before its neck was cut, local Pennsylvania reporter J.D. Mullane tweeted.
The reaction in the courtroom after the verdict was read was "muted" aside from a sigh, according to the Inquirer.
Gosnell was hit with 250 charges in addition to the murder counts, including charges for illegally performing third-trimester abortions. Mullane tweeted that he was also found guilty of conspiring to perform abortions later than Pennsylvania's 24-week limit and of failing to require women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours before getting one.
Prosecutors believed Gosnell actually killed hundreds of live babies after they were born but only had enough evidence to file charges for several murders, according to a scathing, 281-page grand jury report laying out the allegations against him.
Gosnell was accused of exploiting low-income women who were seeking late-term abortions and running an utterly filthy clinic. Gosnell allegedly employed untrained workers — including a high school student — and kept the severed feet of fetuses in jars in his clinic.
Cat feces littered the floor, and women in his waiting room moaned in pain and were covered in blood-stained blankets, according to the report.
Gosnell — who grew up in the poor West Philly neighborhood where he opened his clinic — is now cited frequently by abortion opponents and especially opponents of late-term abortion.
"The Gosnell case highlights the tragedy of the over 130,000 late-term abortions that happen legally across America annually — the only difference is that Gosnell was not as competent in killing the baby inside the womb," Maureen Ferguson, a policy adviser to the Catholic Association, said in a statement emailed to Business Insider.
Pro-choice advocates have used the Gosnell "horror show" to illustrate the need for women to access abortions earlier on in their pregnancies. Katha Pollitt wrote about Gosnell in the liberal magazine The Nation back in 2011:
"What fueled Gosnell’s business were the very restrictions the legislature was so keen on passing—parental notification, waiting periods, biased counseling and, most important, a ban on state funding for abortion for low-income women. Would women have gone to the Women’s Medical Society if Pennsylvania paid for abortion with Medicaid funds? Would they have had late procedures if they could have afforded earlier ones?"
Pollitt said the saddest part of the Gosnell case was that women didn't feel like they could go to a legitimate abortion provider.
"Only women who felt they had no better alternative would have accepted such dangerous, degrading and frightening treatment," Pollitt wrote.
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