Gosnell: The Movie–Trying to Tell the Story of an American Serial Killer Which Strikes Too Close to Home

[L] Ann McElhinney and [R] Phelim McAleer

Last spring, husband and wife veteran filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Anne McElhinney were publicizing their feature documentary Fracknation as the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell was occurring in Philadelphia.  McAleer was amazed at the lack of coverage of a prolific serial killer that murdered two women in botched late term abortions in unsanitary conditions, used a brutal snipping technique to kill a thousand children beyond the legal limit for abortion and also dealt prescription drugs.

Yet the national mainstream media ignored the Gosnell case, dismissing it like a local murder case while lavishing attention on the concurrent Jodi Arias murder trial. McAleer did man on the street interviews in California to learn about what the public knew about sensational murder trials.

As Katherine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post, proclaimed: “What we cover and what we don’t matter a lot…The power is to set the agenda.”  Fox News commentator Greg Gutfeld recently speculated about the reasons why most of the mainstream media (including Fox) did not cover the Gosnell trial closely:

“The reason why they don’t do this one is not because the evil is so grotesque.  It’s that it’s too close to a moral choice they’ve made.  That’s what it’s about.  It’s not that like, ah it’s so hard to do something on this man who butchered babies.  It’s because it’s too close to the pro-choice mindset.”

However, McAleer and McElhinney were so haunted by the Gosnell trial that they backed away from other crowd-source funded projects so as to make a movie about Gosnell.  Yet Anne & Phelim Media encountered more velvet gloved censorship by Kickstarter, which claims to not curate projects but would not allow them to describe their dramatized movie idea as being about a mass murderer who killed a thousand children as it allegedly violated community standards which Kickstart “encourages and (selectively) enforces”.  McAleer believes that it is within Kickstarter’s right to not facilitate funding but that it should be forthright that it is due to the project matter not a transparent lie about community standards which it does not enforce for sundry other offensive projects.

So they moved their crowd-source funding efforts to Indiegogo, where they have raised $1.2 million  of a fixed target $2.1 million.  If they do not make their designated funding mark by May 12th, the money reverts  back to the prospective investors.

There is already an excellent documentary film 3801 Lancaster, which interviews victims of Gosnell’s House of Horrors.  So McAleer and McElhinney want to make dramatized version of the Gosnell story which would run on the Lifetime  Movie Network rather than a feature documentary to reach a wider audience.

 It is easy for seaboard elitists to dismiss a film about Gosnell as just being by religious zealots with pro-life propaganda, which is a touch charge to apply to McAleer and McElhinney. In addition, this dismissive instinct ignores how Dr. Gosnell was a racist as he gave his white patients much better and cleaner abortion services than his clients of color.

A film about Gosnell must also include a political angle.  Former Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) was elected as chief executive of the Keystone State as a moderate Republican.  The governor’s office made it clear that the Commonwealth should do nothing to impede abortion services, so Gosnell’s clinic was not properly inspected for 17 years, despite gruesome reports and several deaths.

Gosnell’s clinic was raided because Gosnell was writing prescriptions like a pell mell pill mill for Oxycotin and the ilk.  That raid permitted police to stumble upon an unsanitary abortion butchery, where Gosnell kept severed limbs as trophies.

Hearing the filmmakers promote their project, it is clear that they yearn to tell a compelling true story about a prolific American serial killer and pull back the curtain on details which a progressive public would rather ignore.

 

If one wishes to help actuate the Gosnell movie project, one can contribute to the efforts at www.gosnellmovie.com.  Those who contribute $25 will get a DVD of the film.  But the filmmakers also implore people to contribute anything to show that people care.

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Properly Remembering National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers

March 10th was designated National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers.  It is the 18th anniversary of abortionist Dr. David Gunn.   Planned Parenthood of New York suggested sending flowers and thank you notes to abortion providers. How touching.


In an apologia for National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers published by Talking Points Memo, Colleen Crinion,  a self described progressive activist and a former Planned Parenthood employee lamented that women are being shamed from having abortions and regulations requiring admitting privileges are discouraging doctors from performing abortions. Crinion paints a picture of abortionists as valiant heath care professions who are performing a service which is no big deal and is safer than childbirth.  


Still Crinion concedes that: “Like any profession, abortion doctors are not homogeneously perfect.” A better paradigm for National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers is Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who ABC TV Terry Moran labeled:  “the most successful serial killer in the history of the world.”  

Gosnell’s practice consisted in late term abortions for minorities and immigrants in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.   If Gosnell did not kill the child in the womb, he would snip the child’s neck “to ensure fetal demise”.  Gosnell was tried for several post birth murders of children as well as for the death of a women who Gosnell botched an abortion in which the woman died because she was not admitted for more advanced medical treatment which would have exposed his House of Horrors.  The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania may have turned a blind eye to his horrific practice because of political contributions and political correctness.  Wonder if Gosnell received flowers or thank you notes while serving his life sentence without parole. Alas, Gosnell was not an isolated occurrence.  

An even more apt memorialization of the day might be a statue at Legazhi parish in Bicol, Philippines.

This unsettling art should not bother those properly remembering National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers.  After all, pro abortionists contend that the fetus is just an unwanted blob of tissue. The sculpture reminds people of the consequences of their “choice” much more than buzz words like protecting “reproductive rights” or womens’ health.  In an age when many accept moral relativism, appreciating the humanity of a situation can cause metanoia towards moral truths and inspire ethical behavior.  This is why progressives favoring “abortion rights” fight so hard against ultrasounds, waiting periods et cetera, as it allows for introspection and rejection of terminating a pregnancy.

However, the Bicol Statue memorializes the abortionist’s role.   What ought to be remembered are the victims:  the unborn child whose life is terminated and the mother. That is best expressed by a heart rendering work  “Memory for Unborn Children” by Slovakian sculptor Martin Hudáček.

“Memory for Unborn Children” by Martin Hudáček

 As Fr.William Kurz, S.J. of Marquette University observed about Hudáček’s work: “It speaks directly and beautifully both to the intense and profound grief of the mother, and to the dignity of the aborted baby.”

Abortion War Casualties

Alas, it is the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  So the poignant political cartoon and the statistics of casualties of the judicially mandated imposition of abortion on demand are slightly out of date, but no less poignant.  

 

Yet politicians can demagogue about a “War on Women”, yet forget about the children who are casualties, as well as sanction barbaric and illegal practices (ala Kermit Gosnell) which endanger womens’ health so as nothing might endanger the so called “Right to Choose.”  

h/t: Garyvarvel.com

Pelosi Makes a Mockery of the Magesterium on Abortion

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12th)

In the wake of the capital convictions of notorious Philadelphia late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12th) was asked a hard moral question.  A journalist who was not content to just do public relations for the former Speaker asked her what was the moral difference between the abortions that Dr. Kermit Gosnell could legally do at 23 weeks and an medical abortion performed at 28 weeks or even a live birth.

House Democrat Leader Pelosi refused to directly answer the question.  First, she snarkily noted that the journlist savored asking the hard question.  She later refused to answer the inquiry as the question had an agenda.  But in the alluvia of excuses in between, Nancy Pelosi managed to use her Catholic faith as a shield to defend why she supports what she euphemistically refers to a “woman’s right to make decisions about her reproductive health.”   

Nancy Pelosi contends that she would not answer the question since “[A]s a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.” 

Father Frank Pavone published an open letter to Ms. Pelosi on behalf of the Priests for Life noting that her June 13th answer makes a mockery of the Catholic faith and is reprehensible.  Pavone elaborated: 

Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life

 

You speak here of Catholic faith as if it is supposed to hide us from reality instead of lead us to face reality, as if it is supposed to confuse basic moral truths instead of clarify them, and as if it is supposed to help us escape the hard moral questions of life rather than help us confront them.

Whatever Catholic faith you claim to respect and practice, it is not the faith that the Catholic Church teaches. And I speak for countless Catholics when I say that it’s time for you to stop speaking as if it were.

Abortion is not sacred ground; it is sacrilegious ground. To imagine God giving the slightest approval to an act that dismembers a child he created is offensive to both faith and reason.

Last year, when Rep. Pelosi pontificated that the entire Catholic Church was not against the HHS Mandate, just 43 Catholic organizations, and that these Bishops had not spoken ex cathedra, there were calls for Pelosi to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Ex-communication is not a punishment per se, but is a protection of a person’s immortal soul from unworthily receiving the Body and Blood of Christ and the unity of faith.

But as Pelosi has persisted in invoking the Catholic thing to justify policy positions on abortions which are so counter to the Magesterium that is creates scandal among the faithful, it might be time for San Francisco Archbishop  Salvatore Cordileone to invoke Canon 915, which denies the Eucharist to someone who obstinantly persists in grave sin.  

If Pelosi was a person of good character, she would either align her abortion positions with the Church when executing her office or follow the Priests for Life’s suggestion to be honest enough to renounce her Catholicism.    What is more likely to occur is emulating the example of Episcopalian Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori who keeps the pageantry of high church while eviscerating the underlying ideals by applying self-serving human secularist faith.

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A Bit of Brooding About Born Never Asked

It is fascinating to witness how the gory details of the Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s capital murder case has made pro-choice people uncomfortable.  The elite liberal media had to be shamed to cover the serial killing string infanticides of seven babies who were born but had their spinal cords “snipped” to “ensure fetal demise”.  

The New York Times, whose mast proclaims “All the News that is fit to print”, which tends to be the vanguard for the mainstream media (really the elite liberal media) stopped covering it because it had already published six articles.  The New York Times’ editorial editor Andrew Rosenthal rationalized the Old Gray Lady’s lack of curiosity over the gruesome details of Gosnell by opining: 

What does the trial of a Philadelphia doctor who is accused of performing illegal late-term abortions by inducing labor and then killing viable fetuses have to do with the debate over legal abortion?

That rhetorical question is easy to answer– it gives insights how some of our high ranking elected officials actually hold political positions which condone Gosnell’s acts of infanticide and how government officials and medical turn a blind eye to existing law protecting the newly born to ensure the viability of their perceived sacred right of abortion on demand.

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Although this author is appalled by abortion, it is currently the law of the land with some caveats (like the 24 week rule, and Born Alive).  But consider the appalling medical conditions described in the Gosnell trial, and the aforementioned Orlando abortion instance and the lack of regard for the Born Alive Protection Act.  Does this type of treatment represent the sentiments which President Obama alluded to when quoting President Bill J. Clinton that “Abortion should be rare, safe and legal”.

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If abortionists routinely skirt the law on infants born alive and give sub-par medical treatment to women wanting abortions on the cusp of legally recognized viability, then how does it bode for other medical treatment, especially under Obamacare? 

Those who oppose abortion know that pro-choice people become uncomfortable when the ghastly  facts about abortion as practice are exposed.  That is why the Lamestream Media ignores cases like Gosnell and Hollywood stereotypes pro-lifers as hayseed, obsessed bitter clingers.  But as we are all being fed into the machine of Obamacare, people should be fully cognizant how medical ethics are being skirted for profit and professional integrity as well as the ethics of removing the voice for the defenseless such as  the unborn may soon imperil you.

 

SEE MORE at DCBarroco.com 

 

Snips of Truth About Ignoring Infanticide in America

Some may be scandalized by comparing the unsavory actions of abortionist Kermit Gosnell and President Barack Obama.  Yet the facts hold out that as a legislator in the Illinois Senate, Mr. Obama twice opposed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

In 2008, Presidential Candidate Obama  lashed out against “liars” when his legislative positions were questioned.  He issued a statement that he was deeply insulted and offended as the proud father of two girls that he was in favor of infanticide.  Even the Washington Post would award Mr. Obama four pinocchios for this misleading statement, as Obama was impeached on a Christian Broadcasting Network video, but that was so four years ago.

But listen to the legislative colloquy that then State Senator Obama had on the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

That if that fetus, or child, however you want to describe it, is now
outside of the mother’s womb and the doctor continues to think that it’s
non viable but there’s lets say movement or some indication that
they’re not just coming out limp and dead that in fact they would then
have to call in a second physician to monitor and check off and make
sure that this is not a live child that could be saved?

The salient point is that the requirement to have a second physician on call was an undue burden that would inhibit access to an abortion.   Furthermore, Mr. Obama dismisses the notion that physicians would not attend to mistakes and have a fetus outside of the mother’s womb that was viable.

Consider the gory facts exposed in the Gosnell capital murder case in Philadelphia.  Abortionist Gosnell’s special technique, which he instructed other unlicensed staff in his office to also perform, was to snip the spinal cord of a just born-alive child in an illegal late term abortion so that it “ensured fetal demise”.  Does that give Mr. Obama some cause for pause?

Mr. Obama’s contradictory comments make as much sense as when President Obama recently said “God Bless Planned Parenthood”  to a conference of the nation’s largest abortion and “family planning” providers.

The media continues to ignore the inconsistencies in Obama’s extreme abortion stance as well as the details of the Kermit Gosnell trial because facts challenging their secular shibboleths exposes the hypocrisy of doing everything “for the children” and exposes the callousness of their “choices”. And to add insult to mortal injury,  both Gosnell and Mr. Obama justify their actions to help the poor and marginalized, with little regard for the law, ethics, or the ultimate consequences.

A Bit of Fallout From the Philadelphia Abortionist Kermit Gosnell Trial

The horrific testimony about Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is being tried for

the murder of seven newborns and a Bhutanese female refuge after a botched abortion has shown that ideology isolates opinion on mass murder.  While America is outraged over the cruel killing and maiming that the Boston Marathon Bombers inflicted, the media had to be shamed into briefly covering a doctor who’s groundbreaking technique was to snip the spinal cords of infants after being born to “ensure fetal demise” and storing dozens on jars of dismembered body parts on shelves.

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The lack of curiosity in the Lamestream Media over the testimony for the  House of Horrors at 3801 Lancaster is understandable as political partisans who do not want the sacrament of abortion on demand to be endangered.

But even for those who fervently support the right of a mother to an unborn baby, they should be concerned at the basically unregulated health and sanitary conditions and disparate treatment of their desperate customers.

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Pro Life people were dismayed when the trial court judge threw out three counts of the first degree murder for newborns as not having enough evidence to present at trial.  This was probably aided by the documented fact that  Gosnell’ destroyed clinic records before he was raided.  The trial judge later reinstated one count on the newborn thrown in a shoe box. Thus Gosnell is still being tried for five first degree murders and the third degree murder of the botched abortion. While this records cleansing may spare him some jail time, the publish should know his record.

If the Lamestream Media would do its job, there would be little need to have a slew of summer Horror flicks as all one would need to do is review Gosnell trial coverage. However the elite liberal media reports on what it cares about, ignores the rest while disparaging journalists who do not follow the party line. For those who can stomach the gory details, it is worth watching the documentary 3801 Lancaster (2013)  by director David Altrogge.

SEE MORE at DCBarroco.com

Ideology Isolates Opinons on Mass Murder

Between the Lamestream Media reactions to Sandy Hook, the Pop Gun primary school suspension and the willful ignorance about the Dr. Kermit Gosnell slaughterhouse, it’s no wonder that Mark Steyn thinks that America is doomed.