Gosnell Found Guilty – Now What?

Now is a good time to take a cleansing breath and focus on the impact the Gosnell verdict will have on the pro-life movement. As we are leaping in joy for a conviction, we must keep our wits about us and realize that the same babies, if killed by lethal injection within the womb, would have been legally aborted in clinics all over the country - they still are and will continue to be. The Gosnell saga is just the tip of the horrendous iceberg called ‘choice’ and this one victory should not lull us into complacency. Yes, this one monster has been found guilty of part of the horrific charges against him (3* counts of first degree murder for babies and 1 count of involuntary manslaughter for the woman killed via overdose), but there are many others out there doing exactly the same thing.

Much as Al Capone was brought down by tax evasion charges instead of his criminal activity as a mobster, Gosnell was brought down by a drug related raid. What the authorities found, shocked even seasoned law enforcement. No one in authority had cared about what he had been doing to women and babies in the 15 years since the last inspection of his house of horrors. They didn't care that he experimented on unwitting poor women, maiming several of them in what is termed the Mothers Day Massacre. Just like they didn't care that, across this country, dozens of clinics just like his operate without question every day. No one cared that Planned Parenthood referred women to Gosnell because they couldn't stomach (or perhaps get away with) late term abortions in such huge numbers and scandalous conditions.

Where is the outcry for all of the numerous women, all over the country, who suffered death at the hands of these butchers legally plying their murderous procedures described simply as medical ‘treatment’?

What we have been handed is a gift wrapped opportunity to take the ball and run with it. The Gosnell trial finally gave pro-life advocates a voice and forced even the meekest network to at least marginally offer coverage. That a liberal news analyst, Kirsten Powers, deserves our deepest gratitude for finally breaking the story wide open and that Fox News offered some decent coverage would have been highly unlikely just a few weeks ago. Now the proverbial cat is out of the bag and, to mix my metaphors, we must make hay while the sun does shine! Our 19 brave Congressmen who spoke on the House floor,  some media coverage, #Gosnell Tweetfests, blogging and marathon postings on Facebook have gone a long way in educating more and more people. How shockingly surprising to find that there are still many, many good citizens out there who are oblivious to this scandalous affair!

So, on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, we have been granted a wonderful chance to witness for Life. Coupled with the surprise visit of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, in support of tens of thousands of pro-life faithful at the March for Life in Rome yesterday (Mothers Day), we have been blessed with an impressive beginning to the rest of the pro-life journey. What happens next is up to the collective us. Will we rest on our laurels in this partially won victory or will we let this be the catalyst to finally find our voice – a voice of righteous anger and outrage for the atrocities visited upon the innocent, left in our charge by God Almighty? A foot is in the door, so let’s fling it open and throw ourselves into the task of gaining momentum. Let us pray harder, speak louder, love more, and gird up for the ensuing battle. Now is not the time to turn away in horror – not wanting any more reminders. Satan, Planned Parenthood, and liberal media were forced to give us our day in the sun but make no mistake, they will be back with the fury of hell. Let’s be ready. Let’s rise to the occasion. And with God at our side, let’s forever end the most unspeakable act of killing the innocents at the altar of convenience!

*Read about the baby that Gosnell was not convicted of killing here.

PS. As a Catholic believer in the unfathomable mercy of God, my hope is that Gosnell is kept in prison for the rest of his natural life. May he find true remorse and forgiveness. 

Dead bodies, severed limbs, blood - Boston Marathon or Kermit Gosnell?

I noticed that a gruesome photo is making the rounds in my Facebook news feed - it shows one of the mangled competitors in the Boston Marathon after the bombs went off. His leg is gone from the knee down but there is a long portion of bone still attached and jutting out where his leg used to be. The same thing happened when, Kevin Ware, a Louisville basketball player, broke his leg during a tournament game recently. There were photos everywhere showing the bone sticking out about 6" from his flesh. These types of explicit photos were/are shown ad nauseam while we are held as a captive audience. These images simply can't be avoided if we persist in our day to day activity on social media.

When something like this – or 9-11 – happens there is a preoccupation with viewing it over and over again. There are constant counts and recounts of - deaths, injuries, spectators, shrapnel, and every other type of tally. It’s as if hearing the minutia of the event will somehow fix the gravity of the situation in our minds. Since we are consumers of the 24-hour news cycle - like a train wreck - we seem to be unable to look away. And so the media shows the same video clips over and over again, others post and we stare at countless pictures. And we somehow try to take in the horror of the current event du jour. 

While the sports injury in Louisville was an unfortunate accident, in Boston the carnage was the result of an act of willful terror. Of course our hearts go out to all victims but, when we are forced to ponder the inhumanity that allows such a willfully depraved act, we see the frightening proof of evil. We are left to wonder how such an act could have been perpetrated by a fellow human being. What motivates such willful destruction? What can be done about it? Where do we go from here? The questions are as numerous as the injuries and the people affected by them.

 And yet…

When we attempt to expose the grisly horror that is abortion we are called 'over the top'. Facebook censors our fan pages and walls. The pro-abortion crowd vehemently denounces our efforts. We are accused of forcing unwilling spectators to see something so unspeakably evil that it simply can’t be viewed. There, too, are counts and pictures and carnage and blood and severed limbs. In addition, there are ‘trophies’ - babies in freezers, parts in jars. For its part, the media stages a blackout and ignores what's going on in the squalid rooms of abortion mills. And yet the pro-life faithful don’t have to daily peruse the grim reality of a Kermit Gosnell to know that abortion is an act of terror of the highest degree in every.single.instance.

All of the components for news reporting are there: countless victims, cold-blooded perpetrators, and an act so unspeakably violent that we recoil in sheer horror at the enormity of it all. Yet, it goes largely unreported and therefore neatly tucked away in the darkness of the unspeakable. And there it thrives – because no one has to face the ugliness. Pro-life efforts to shine the light of truth on abortion are shoved into a corner where very few will see, ponder, and rise up to ask the same questions they do when any othere act of terror happens. How can such an act be perpetuated by fellow human beings? What motivates such willful destruction? What can be done about it? Where do we go from here? Here, too, the questions are as numerous as the deaths, injuries, and the people affected by them.

With the spotlight finally on an individual who committed such heinous acts, perhaps we will move into a position where the answers will come. The hand of the media has been forced by those of us who rose up and demanded coverage of the Gosnell trial via social media - Pro-Lifers flooded Twitter With 100s of #Gosnell Tweets per second last Friday. More such efforts are currently in the works so perhaps we will finally fill those empty media seats at the Gosnell trial. Now that we have gained momentum, we must forge ahead in exposing abortion as the child murder it is. Maybe we will bring these dark, sinister acts into the light for all to see. And once we are all forced to face what happens at the hands of monsters like Gosnell, maybe we will be able to find a way to end the violence of abortion – for the good of the victims and for the good of our society. 

Find me on Twitter - @tigribj  and retweet: 

Dead bodies everywhere, severed limbs, blood. #Boston? #Gosnell? 1 you'll see the other hidden. #prolife #prochoice http://bit.ly/13chptl