(Newser)
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Pennsylvania health officials ignored multiple complaints against Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor accused of systematically killing newborn babies with scissors, the grand jury concluded. Almost a third of its report is spent castigating state and city authorities for their negligence, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Government health and licensing officials had received reports about Gosnell’s dangerous practices,” the jury wrote. “No action was taken, even after the agencies learned that women had died under Gosnell’s care.”
When Gosnell was sued for malpractice in the death of a patient in 2002, the state told the plaintiff’s lawyer there were no complaints against him, but in reality there had been several—including one doctor who said patients had been infected with sexually transmitted diseases at the clinic. Officials also failed to investigate when a patient died of anesthetic overdose in 2009, and board attorneys “disregarded notices that numerous patients were hospitalized with fetal remains still inside; with perforated uteruses, cervixes, and bowels.”
