Abortion clinic workers confess to murders in horrifying case

November 2, 2011
Jim Kouri, Law Enforcement Examiner

Dr. Gosnell's house of horrors: There was no health and
no care in this Philadelphia abortion mill.

Credits: Boston College School of Law

Warning: This news story contains gory details of violent, criminal acts perpetrated in an abortion clinic that more resembled a slaughterhouse than a health care center.

Two female workers at an inner-city abortion clinic pleaded guilty to murdering newborn babies and an adult patient in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday.

Thirty-four year old Adrienne Moton and 52-year old Sherry West both entered guilty pleas to third-degree murder in the killing of viable newborns as well as feeding a patient enough painkillers to cause her overdose and death.

Both women worked for Dr. Kermit Gosnell at Women's Medical Society, which prosecutors termed "a decrepit and unsanitary clinic."

Sentencing of the two convicted killers is scheduled for December 2 before Judge Benjamin Lerner. According to the Pennsylvania's criminal code the maximum penalty for third-degree murder is 40 years in prison.

In addition to Moton and West, seven other suspects face charges in the case, including the Dr. Gosnell, who the grand jury stated, killed babies and endangered pregnant women, and that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy.

He then allegedly murdered these newborns by cutting their spinal cords with scissors.

The grand jury heard testimony from a clinic co-worker of Moton's that a patient gave birth to a large baby at the clinic. The child was then placed inside of a toilet. Reportedly, the co-worker told them that the baby was moving in the toilet water as if it was trying to swim.

The grand jury than head testimony that "Moton reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck."

West was charged with the murder of a 41-year-old patient named Karnamaya Mongar.

The grand jury heard testimony that Mongar died from a severe heart attack as a result of overdosing on the painkiller Demoral, said to be more potent than morphine.

The grand jury was told that West and another abortion clinic worker administered the drug following physician Gosnell's order and Mongar died as a result of what prosecutors called wanton and reckless behavior.

According to several law enforcement officials, this case illustrates what occurs when there is little oversight and "a lot of covering up to avoid perceived political backlash against the abortion industry."

"When have you ever seen television cameras or journalists with video recorders in an abortion clinic? What is there to hide?" asked former New York City homicide detective Terry Knudsen.