Today is the second day in the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the infamous Philadelphia abortionist charged with murdering seven newborn babies and one young woman in a botched abortion due to overdose of anesthesia. Gosnell killed the babies with scissors after they had been born – and he wasn’t the only one.

Adrienne Moton, a former employee of Gosnell, testified for the prosecution. CBS Philadelphia reported her testimony:

“Adrienne Moton broke down several times as she recounted her work at the clinic.

Untrained, she says, she was doing ultrasounds and administering anesthesia within months. And eventually, she has admitted, she snipped the necks of ‘a good ten’ fetuses.”

Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors,” otherwise known as the Philadelphia Women’s Medical Society, has been well documented, but Gosnell’s defense attorney, Jack McMahon, says that the prosecution is racially motivated.

“This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who’s done nothing but give (back) to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia…It’s a prosecutorial lynching of Dr. Kermit Gosnell.”

McMahon’s defense of Gosnell is an outrage. Worlds away from a benevolent community doctor, prosecutors say that police found $250,000 when they raided Gosnell’s home – and for those who can stomach it, the 281-page Grand Jury report lays out just how Gosnell “gave back” to the women of West Philadelphia:

The premises were dirty and unsanitary. Gosnell routinely relied on unlicensed and untrained staff to treat patients, conduct medical tests, and administer medications without supervision. Even more alarmingly, Gosnell instructed unlicensed workers to sedate patients with dangerous drugs in his absence… In addition, he regularly performed abortions beyond the 24-week limit prescribed by law. As a result, viable babies were born. Gosnell killed them by plunging scissors into their spinal cords. He taught his staff to do the same.

This trial begs the question: where was the Pennsylvania Department of Health? According to the Grand Jury report, Gosnell’s clinic had not been inspected for more than 17 years.

After 1993…the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions. (pg. 12)

When Governor Bob Casey, a Democrat and a longtime pro-life champion, was replaced by Gov. Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, Kermit Gosnell was given free rein.

Now, we know what a “truce” on abortion looks like.