Staffer recalls horrors at Pennsylvania abortion clinic
Sean O’Sullivan,
The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
April 9, 2013
Doctor is accused of killing 7 newborns and a patient by performing illegal abortions.
usatoday.com
PHILADELPHIA — A woman who worked at an inner-city abortion clinic here testified Tuesday that snipping the necks of babies that patients might deliver before their abortions was "standard procedure."
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, owner of the Women's Medical Society clinic in West Philadelphia, taught her how to flip a baby's body over and do the procedure, said Lynda Williams, 44, of Wilmington, Del. But one time when she followed his orders after a baby was delivered in a toilet at the clinic, she saw the newborn move.
STORY: Worker says she cut at least 10 babies
STORY: Defense calls case a 'lynching'
"It jumped, the arm," she said, showing the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury by raising her arm.
Williams told investigators she only snipped a neck the one time "because it gave me the creeps."
"I only do what I'm told to do," she said. "What I was told to do was snip their neck."
Williams said she asked Gosnell about the movement. Gosnell told her it was an "involuntary response" and a "last breath" because the fetus was "already dead" from drugs that had been administered earlier.
"I never knew it was murder," Williams told investigators and repeated to the jury.
Gosnell, 72, is charged with killing a woman patient and seven newborns at his clinic that catered to minorities, the poor and women with late-term pregnancies. He occasionally took notes during Tuesday's testimony but did not react. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Much like former employee Sherry West of Bear, Del., who testified Monday in the trial that is in its fourth week and is expected to last until May, Williams initially said she could not remember key details, and prosecutors had to remind her of earlier statements to investigators.
When Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore initially asked Williams to describe what she saw when she cut the baby's neck, Williams responded with a blank stare and silence.
West, who has pleaded guilty to several charges in connection with this case, had testified Monday that a baby still alive after being aborted screamed one night amid other bodies of aborted fetuses kept on a shelf in the clinic.
She said the large baby's eyes and mouth were not yet completely formed but it was still alive. Abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy are illegal in Pennsylvania.
Under the terms of her plea agreement, she must cooperate with prosecutors. She faces up to 70 years in prison.
Gosnell has been charged with murder in the 2009 death of one of his abortion patients, Karnamaya Mongar.
Prosecutors contend that Mongar died because of an overdose of pain medication administered by Gosnell's staff.
Williams, who is in jail and has admitted to third-degree murder charges and conspiracy in connection with the death, testified that she gave Mongar, 41, repeated doses of pain medication in the hours before her abortion because Mongar was uncomfortable.
Then, during the abortion procedure, she said she saw Mongar's skin turn gray and her breathing slow significantly, so she warned Gosnell. Williams said Gosnell ignored her and continued the procedure.
When Mongar's abortion was completed about 10 minutes after Williams' warning, she said Gosnell checked Mongar's pulse, immediately began doing CPR and ordered Williams to get help from another staff member.
Williams said once she got help, Gosnell told her to call 911, which she said she did.
After that, Williams said, "I left the room. It was scary."
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Dr. Kermit Gosnell in a March 10, 2010, interview with the Philadelphia Daily News.(Photo: Yong Kim, Philadelphia Daily News)
Mongar later died at a hospital.
Eight clinic employees, including Williams who faces up to 100 years in prison, have pleaded guilty to various charges while a ninth is on trial with Gosnell. Eileen O'Neill, an unlicensed doctor, is charged with theft for allegedly practicing medicine without a license.
Gosnell's lawyer, John McMahon, said Williams changed her story several times, initially telling investigators that problems didn't happen until after the procedure was completed.
Williams testified that they never hooked up patients to monitoring devices to check their pulse, heartbeat or breathing and the one monitoring machine in Gosnell's clinic never worked. Gosnell had a second clinic in Delaware.
Williams said she monitored patients by simply looking at them and watching for a pulse in their neck veins.
She also testified that standard procedure at the clinic was to give all patients the same doses of medicine — as outlined in a chart on the wall — and they did not make any changes to account for weight, age or other medical factors.
Both Williams and West have testified that they were Gosnell's patients before they were his employees. West said Monday that she had been seeing him for more than 20 years. |
