Jail for wife of abortion doctor

The wife of a Philadelphia abortion doctor, a cosmetologist who admitted helping him perform very late-term abortions at his corrupt, grimy clinic, said today that she was sorry for trusting her husband and was sentenced from seven to 23 months in prison.

Pearl Gosnell had pleaded guilty to racketeering and performing an illegal abortion past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit.

She said her husband, Kermit, told her the abortions were all performed within the legal limit and she believed him. He was convicted this month of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive.

The case became a flashpoint in the polarised US abortion debate. Abortion foes said it exposed the true nature of abortion in all its disturbing detail.

Abortion supporters warned that Gosnell’s practice foreshadows what women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.

“I am the wife of Kermit Gosnell, I am not happy about that now and I haven’t been for a long time,” Pearl Gosnell, 51, said at her sentencing today, when a judge gave her seven to 23 months in prison, minus nearly three months for time served after her 2011 arrest.

Gosnell lashed out at her husband, saying he refused to take a plea deal that would have spared her prison and saved the family home, and called him cowardly after he refused to speak at his sentencing.

“By choosing the cowardly way, my husband has left me to make the apologies,” Gosnell told a judge. “My husband is in jail forever, which is where he should be.”

A trained cosmetologist, she reaped the financial rewards of her husband’s busy abortion and pain clinic, and lied about the US $250,000 in cash found stashed in their teenage daughter’s bedroom, a prosecutor said. She told the FBI it came from rental properties.

“You chose to be his partner in life. And you chose to be his partner in this operation masquerading as a medical facility,” Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner said.

Former employees testified that Kermit Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past the 24-week limit; delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing; and dispatched the newborns by “snipping” their spines, as he referred to it.

Gosnell was also convicted in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, who was given a fatal overdose of painkillers.

A former clinic employee, who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges, was sentenced today to time served after being jailed for 28 months.

Adrienne Moton, 36, had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges. Mr Lerner said he was sending Moton home and she has shown remorse for her crimes.

In an emotionally wrought statement, Moton told the court she thought she was helping women but never thought about the babies at Gosnell’s clinic.

The judge rescheduled the sentencing dates for clinic workers Lynda Williams, 44; Sherry West, 53; and Tina Baldwin, 47, because the women still have unresolved federal drug charges.