Gosnell performed abortions after Pennsylvania state law bans them — 24 weeks. Staffers were trained to take ultrasounds so that the fetuses looked younger. And it appears Gosnell invented the procedure he used for killing the fetuses. He did so in disgusting conditions. Feral cats were allowed to walk around and poop on the floor. Women were given blood-stained blankets. Bizarrely, fetal feet were stored in plastic jugs. Not even the grossest restaurants are allowed to stay open in conditions like that. But Gosnell found it highly lucrative. The clinic took in between $10,000 and $15,000 a day.

Douthat hints that pro-abortion bias in the press might explain why Gosnell and abortion laws aren't being linked more explicitly. He says, "it seems like a genuinely fair-minded, ideologically disinterested press would at least tend to mention the link between the Gosnell case and the Texas bill as often as it mentions Wendy Davis’s footwear." But does linking Gosnell to these laws really strengthen the case?

As many people have pointed out, what the Gosnell case is really about is not abortion, but poverty. No wealthy women would have been subjected to such treatment or horrific conditions. Gosnell was able to take advantage of the fact that few poor women would report his clinic, and those who did were ignored. Sherry Thomas told The New York Times she couldn't afford her fourth child, but by the time she saved up enough money for an abortion, she was in her fifth month of pregnancy. She woke up covered in her own blood while being put in an ambulance. Her uterus had been punctured. So Gosnell offered her a discount, the Times reports:

“When I woke up I thought, ‘I might die today,’ ” Ms. Thomas said. Dr. Gosnell offered her $500, she said, possibly in an effort to avert a lawsuit. She had paid $800 for the abortion.

The grand jury report found that despite many warning signs — Gosnell's clinic was open past midnight, women were seen stumbling out in a daze — Pennsylvania regulators did nothing. Proseutors say the case shows "complete regulatory collapse." In fact, even though Gosnell had been sued for malpractice 15 times, what led his clinic to be raided was too many Oxycontin prescriptions.

The new anti-abortion bills make it harder for women to get abortions. Texas's bill — the new HB2 and SB9 are mirror images of the much debated SB5 — calls for "banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, requiring that the procedure be performed at ambulatory surgical centers, and mandating that doctors who perform abortions obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles," the Houston Chronicle reports. These architectural changes are expensive, and some clinics say they can't afford them, meaning there might be fewer abortion clinics. Likewise, in Ohio, the new budget bans publicly-funded hospitals from entering emergency care transfer agreements with abortion clinics, meaning some clinics might close.