The Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia, which happened almost a decade ago, in one sense wasn’t about abortion. It was about an abortionist who operated without any oversight after complaints mounted about his brutal treatment of poor black and immigrant women. Women died in his clinic, and so did babies. And by babies, I do not mean only the developing babies who were killed by abortion. I mean the babies who were born alive and whose necks were snipped. It was a gruesome place. But there are Democratic politicians who can’t get themselves to say that infanticide is wrong. Once you start to treat human life callously, you’ve accepted a poison that corrupts.
I mention Gosnell because there is a limited-run play in Manhattan about his case — it’s around the corner from the Moynihan Train Hall, and Senator Moynihan would appreciate the effort. I went to see Oh Gosnell: A Show About The Truth last night and met the hero lead detective, James Woods, who made sure what was happening in Gosnell’s clinic was all seen and recorded and ultimately prosecuted. It’s an hour. It’s hard to confront, even if you’re already familiar with the details, but it’s important and timely. It really is about the reality of abortion in America. Not every abortion clinic is putting baby parts down the garbage disposal, but every abortion clinic in America has dead babies. That’s why they exist.
Details are here for the play, and I encourage you to support the effort. It’s based entirely on the Gosnell grand-jury report and trial transcript. It’s been made in response to the abortion comedy happening in the city. I’ve not seen the comedy, but Ann McElhinney, who, with her husband Phelim McAleer wrote the book Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer and are reason for the play (McAleer is its writer; it is directed by David Atkinson), has. She said there are many jokes, but no actual talk of abortion and what it is. You can laugh when you are all about euphemisms, but that’s going through life in denial. This moment, when we are presumably about to be freed from the regime of Roe v. Wade imposed by the Supreme Court almost 50 years ago, is a moment for confronting the truth and doing better. Toward that end, I’m tremendously grateful that Oh Gosnell: A Show about the Truth exists. If you live in the New York area, please go out and support it. (Incidentally, I was going to make time to see the abortion comedy, but it’s called Oh God: A Show About Abortion, and I can’t really get beyond the initial blasphemy on top of everything else.)
The original venue, by the way, canceled on them. People don’t want to hear the truth.
Buy tickets here. It’s this weekend or next Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Oh Gosnell, meanwhile, is what a culture of death looks like. We have the opportunity to do better right now.