A doctor who killed three babies who had already been born at an abortion clinic has passed away, Pennsylvania officials said March 24.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell was admitted to a hospital outside of the prison system, a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email, before dying on March 1 at 11:45 p.m.
The department did not have the cause of death, and the county coroner did not return a request for that information by publication time.
Gosnell, 85, had been serving a sentence of life in prison at the State Correctional Institution Smithfield in Huntingdon County, about 60 miles south of Pittsburgh.
Prosecutors took the death penalty off the table in an agreement that saw Gosnell decline to appeal the conviction, and Gosnell received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Gosnell’s former employees testified during his trial that he regularly performed abortions past the state legal limit of 24 weeks. They also said that after he delivered some babies, including a 6-pound boy, he and his assistants used scissors to cut their spinal cords.
Gosnell was said to have described what he did as “ensuring fetal demise.”
None of the employees besides Gosnell held a medical license, and none had nursing certifications, according to a grand jury report.
Multiple former employees, including Gosnell’s wife, pleaded guilty to murder or other charges.
Investigators started looking into the clinic because of allegations of prescription drug trafficking. They said it reeked of animal urine, with cats allowed to roam and defecate freely. They also found furniture and blankets stained with blood; instruments without proper sterilization; the emergency exit padlocked shut; and multiple pieces of medical equipment broken, among other problems.
“Scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags and plastic jugs, were fetal remains. It was a baby charnel house,” the grand jury stated in its report.
Health officials had failed for years to carry out routine inspections of abortion clinics, and the case led to the terminations of several top officials and stricter rules for clinics.
Gosnell did not take the stand during his case, and his attorneys did not call any witnesses. One lawyer said prosecutors were racist for charging Gosnell, who was black, and that none of the babies were alive when Gosnell handled them.
Gosnell told a local paper in 2010 that he sought to be “an effective, positive force in the minority community,” adding, “I believe in the long term I will be vindicated.”