Gosnell Quotes

“Gosnell is African American, and there is a persistent myth that serial killers are all white men. But that’s not true. There are serial killers from all ethnic groups: White, African American, Hispanic, and Asian.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“When once a certain class of people has been placed by the temporal and spiritual authorities outside the ranks of those whose life has value, then nothing comes more naturally to men than murder.

—SIMONE WEIL”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“It seemed the medical establishment cared more about the principle of unfettered access to abortion than the safety of real-life women”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“they would sometimes ask the doctor why he plunged scissors into the back of those babies’ necks. “To ensure fetal demise,” he replied. “Are you kidding me?” Pescatore exclaimed. “To ensure fetal demise on a live, breathing, moving infant.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“You see, if a baby is born alive, it’s alive and you and nobody else has the right to take some kind of a step to kill it, whether it’s twenty-three weeks, twenty-four weeks, nineteen weeks, whatever it is,” she said. “You’re a doctor. You have to do the minimal to keep that baby alive. If the baby is alive and you don’t want it to be, that doesn’t mean you have the right to take a pair of scissors and plunge it into its neck and sever its spinal cord, what they did on an everyday basis.” “They called it snipping, and he told all those workers that it was okay. Well, it’s not okay. It’s not okay in this state and in any other state. If a baby is born outside of its mother’s womb, you can’t kill it. If it moves or breathes or has a pulsating umbilical cord or heartbeat for a second, a minute, you can’t kill it. That’s murder.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“babies are a gift from God. My thing is. . .if you can’t take care of it, there are so many people out there that wish they could.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“In any discussion of serial killers, a few notorious names—those of the most prolific killers—always get mentioned. Ted Bundy admitted to killing thirty women, but it could well have been more. Gary Ridgeway, also known as the Green River Killer, was convicted of murdering forty-eight, but later confessed to others. John Wayne Gacy was convicted of killing thirty-three people. Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted of murdering and partially ingesting fifteen people. David Berkowitz, New York City’s “Son of Sam,” shot and killed six people. Less well known but significant are Dennis Rader, who killed ten people in Wichita, Kansas, and Aileen Wuornos, portrayed by Charlize Theron in the film Monster, who killed six men. Wayne Williams was convicted of killing only two men, but he is believed to have killed anywhere from twenty-three to twenty-nine children in Atlanta. Robert Hansen confessed to four murders but is suspected of more than seventeen. Juan Corona was convicted of murdering twenty-five people. Their crimes are all horrific, and the number of victims is heartbreaking. But all these most notorious serial killers stand in the shadow of Dr. Kermit Gosnell. Strangely, Gosnell appears in no list we have found of known U.S. serial killers, though he is the biggest of them all. In reality, Kermit Gosnell deserves the top spot on any list of serial murderers. He’s earned it.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Gosnell also may have been motivated by his anger. Many people who knew him told us about his ferocious temper, which could flare up at any time. A lot of that anger he took out on his patients, yelling and screaming at them and punching them with his fist when they complained of pain or woke during their abortions.10 And attention-seeking may have motivated him, too. He liked being in the same club as George Tiller and the other late-term abortion doctors, he liked the spotlight, the feeling of power. And now he thinks of himself as a martyr.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“All serial murders are not sexually-based. There are many other motivations for serial murders including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking.” It became clear from our research that financial gain was a huge motivator for Gosnell.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“What courage basically comes down to as human beings is to protect the lives of others, to go out of your way to save others.” “When a baby comes out of its mother and it moves and breathes and it’s alive, you have to do the courageous . . . you have to do the right thing,” Cameron said. “You have to protect it.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“But Pescatore wasn’t leading a seminar on the morality of abortion. She wanted the jury to focus on the legal requirements for abortion providers in Pennsylvania. “The number one thing is the twenty-four-hour waiting period,” she told them. “It’s not like you can walk in and say, ‘I want an abortion,’ and you get it. A woman has a right to go in and be counseled before she has an abortion.” But Gosnell had flatly ignored the twenty-four-hour waiting period. He ignored the law, Pescatore said, out of simple greed. “Money. That was the only law that Dr. Gosnell knew,” she said. “You went to 3801 Lancaster Avenue where no laws were followed. None, zero.” The facts would show that Gosnell didn’t do “normal, legal abortions” largely because it was both cheaper and easier for him to induce labor, wait for the woman to give birth, and then kill the baby outside of the womb with scissors.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Gosnell turned almost no one away from the Women’s Medical Society clinic. This is not meant as a compliment. Repentant Gosnell employee Adrienne Moton testified he would perform abortions on any girls or women with no concern about the age of their babies. The only times she could recall Gosnell refusing to perform an abortion was when somebody’s Social Security number couldn’t be verified. In those cases, Gosnell was worried that the “patient” was an undercover cop.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“We had, like I said before. . .we had to prevent life. We had to kill. It’s as simple as that.” —STEVE MASSOF”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“With a few notable exceptions, state and local government officials had completely failed to do their jobs. Official incompetence, bureaucratic inertia, neglect, and the desire to protect abortion from a harsh spotlight whatever the cost caused needless deaths and injuries. The grand jury's conclusion was damning: Kermit Gosnell murdered and maimed with impunity for thirty years because virtually no one did his job properly.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Pennsylvania gave Gosnell carte blanche for the next seventeen years. With every license extension and slipshod inspection, state health regulators sent a message: do what you like, because no matter what you do, we won’t bother you, and we don’t care whom you kill or injure along the way.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“So the incompetents in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital, knew or should have known that, even by their own lax rules, Gosnell should not have been carrying out abortions—but they didn’t care.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“...for Taggart, learning the reality of abortion for the first time was shocking. “Even if it’s done right, it’s barbaric,” he told us. “I’m no holy roller, but if you see the way they actually have to do it, it’s barbaric.” The learning experience was one shared by Wechsler, Pescatore, Wood, and the rest of the team.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Planned Parenthood people and the [pro-choice] community would tell you that everybody knew about him, and they all warned one another internally about him.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Many involved in abortion feel they are part of a political movement helping the less fortunate. It is a moral crusade. Unfortunately, history has shown time and again that people can do terrible, terrible things in the name of the greater good.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“It wasn't a homicide-until it was”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“What they said and the pictures they showed changed me. I am not the same person I was.”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

“Like the clichéd serial killer, Gosnell kept souvenirs of his crimes. All of those little baby feet in formaldehyde-filled glass jars were trophies. Kareema Cross was so disturbed by them that she took photos of them as far back as 2008. If anyone from the Pennsylvania Department of Health had bothered to inspect the Women’s Medical Society, they would have seen them at once. Gosnell didn’t hide them. But the feet were not his only trophies. Gosnell also collected pictures of women’s genitals. He snapped pictures when his patients were unconscious during their abortions. Steve Massof testified that he often saw Gosnell take out his cell phone and take pictures, ostensibly for “research” or for “teaching.” Gosnell was not in fact conducting any research that Massof was aware of, nor did he teach. The doctor told Massof that he had an academic interest in female genital mutilation...”
― Ann McElhinney, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer