Yesterday authorities charged Dr. Gosnell a local Philadelphia primary care physician with murder of a 41 year old woman, Karnamaya Mongar who suffered an overdose of painkillers while awaiting an abortion. Tragically, Pennsylvania regulators for the Department of Health had turned a blind eye to the barbaric conditions long present at Gosnell’s abortion clinic. This failure on part of the overseeing agencies is outrageous and has cost several women their lives. The Department of State’s Board of Medicine, which licenses medical professionals, also failed when it took no action nine years ago when a former Gosnell employee reported the illegal practice of barely trained workers anesthetizing patients before the doctor arrived at the clinic. This very practice was the cause of death of Mongar. Many of the victims were poor and immigrant women who could not get abortions any where else and sadly whose plight fell on the deaf ears of State officials.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health should have regulated this abortion facility with the same scrutiny they regulate ambulatory surgical facilities, so that they are inspected annually and held to the same standards as all other outpatient procedure centers. State regulators level of scrutiny should not be dependent upon the socioeconomic status of the patients being treated at a facility.
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