Evil at work...

I know a few journalists.  I have done various courses on working with the media.  One of the things I have learned is that we now live in a 24/7 news world, in which there is a desperate need for news stories, all the time.

All of which makes it strange when a newsworthy story is largely ignored.

Consider these elements:

• multiple murder charges 
• medical malpractice
• exploitation of poor ethnic minority women
• macabre storage of body parts
• treating white patients better than black ones
• local political and medical authorities turning a blind eye..

and the list goes on.

Yet the trial of Kermit Gosnell has received very little coverage.

The BBC reported that he was charged 2 years ago, but has not covered anything since the trial started. Likewise, the only national news organisation in the UK that seems to have covered it at all is the Daily Mail.  The same pattern holds true in the American media.  Apparently, it is deemed to be a local story; which is odd, really, when the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland was regarded as very newsworthy indeed by the same media.

The only sane conclusion one can draw is that the Savita story was covered because it seemed (as initially reported) to be a useful tool to push for the legalisation of abortions in Ireland.  Whereas the Gosnell story, throwing into sharp relief the truth that abortion kills children, is clearly not welcomed.

So much for the media.

But the sheer barbarism of Gosnell is worthy of note. Not only did he break several laws, and show scant regard for the women he was treating; he also deliberately and regularly delivered live babies and cut their spinal cords.  He also kept their corpses, or parts of them, all around his facility.

This kind of barbarity is more than the greed of a man making millions from others' tragedies.  It is diabolical.  

I believe that the same dynamic is present here as was manifest in the Philpott case: there comes a time when one is so steeped in evil, by repetition and hardening of heart, that one becomes a tool of a will other than one's own.  The Devil, when he gains power, revels in human sacrifice.

So we must pray: for the mothers, for the babies, for the staff, and for the appalling Kermit Gosnell.  For Christ thought he was worthy of saving, and died on the Cross to offer him the chance of salvation.  Let nothing diminish our hatred for his evil deeds, and for the malevolvent will of Satan that inspired them; but let us remember not to hate Gosnell, but to hope for his repentance and ultimate salvation.