Speaking to the Deaf      

  Part 1 of 2  

Peterson

This January, columnist Andree Seu Peterson was among pro-life people who spoke for five minutes before the board of a hospital that performs abortions. Knowing the directors would be tone deaf to her remarks, she proceeded:
    
   Thank you for the opportunity to address the board of this hospital. Five years ago my magazine (WORLD) assigned me to the Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia. 

   Everybody wanted Gosnell found guilty. The pro-lifers...because he killed babies for a living. The pro-abortion crowd...because a lot would come out about abortion, and it would look uncomfortably similar to what had occurred at (Gosnell's facility). 

   The prosecution's first witness was an obstetrician from this hospital who does abortions. She was supposed to make Gosnell look bad. She was supposed to show the way a proper abortion is done. We learned interesting things from her - such as the right way to measure a baby's head before aborting so that we don't violate the 24-week Pennsylvania law; such as having a good autoclave for sterilizing scissors used to cut up the baby's hands and feet in order to get them out of the mother. 

   The D.A. had a tough row to hoe. He had to portray Gosnell as a "monster" without making all abortionists look like monsters. He did that by emphasizing the safety of hospital abortions for the mother. He did it by emphasizing the cleanliness of this hospital's surgery units versus what he repeatedly called Gosnell's "house of horrors" clinic. 

   He did it by contending that it was cruel to snip the aborted baby's spinal cord to hasten death (Gosnell's method) but that it was compassionate to place the still-breathing baby under a blanket till it expires (this hospital's method). 

Conclusion tomorrow