Inconvenient Horrors

If you missed it, I’m not surprised.

It was certainly underreported by the media and, let’s face it, few of us like to dwell on violence—especially when it’s real and against our most vulnerable.

Less than two months ago, 2,246 medically-preserved fetal remains were found in the Illinois home of a recently-deceased doctor. Yeah, that’s right— over 2000 medically-preserved fetal remains. That’s as creepy as any episode of Criminal Minds.

Here’s the backstory:

On September 3^rd, Dr. Ulrich Klopfer (above on the right) died in his home in Will County, Illinois. Then, on September 12^th, as his family was going through his stuff, they discovered fetal remains and alerted the authorities to request proper removal. “The remains were reportedly stored in boxes dated 2000-2002, a period during which Klopfer owned and operated three abortion clinics in Indiana.”[1]

Given the details above, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Dr. Klopfer’s reputation had been less than stellar. “His medical license was suspended by the state of Indiana in 2015 and indefinitely in 2016, after numerous complaints were issued against him. He admitted to performing abortions on two 13 year-old girls and did not report the cases to the state in a timely manner. His Fort Wayne clinic was reported by the state’s medical board to be ‘rundown,’ and he charged adult patients extra for pain medication.

He also admitted to performing an abortion on a 10 year-old girl in Illinois, who had been raped by her uncle, while not reporting her case to the authorities.” [2]

Over a forty-year career, Klopfer “performed obstetrics, gynecological services, and surgical and medical abortions at clinics in Fort Wayne, Gary, and South Bend, Indiana. He was estimated to have aborted more than 30,000 children…”[3]

As I tried to wrap my head around this genocidal legacy, I came across this post:

“Yesterday it was reported that the bodies of 2,246 aborted children were found in the house of a recently deceased abortionist.
This type of behavior is consistent with that of serial killers or rapists, who keep the remains or mementos of their victims to revel in and relive their crimes.
Our cultural heartbeat only seems to skip a beat when situations like this are exposed, but let’s take a moment and check our cognitive dissonance: were abortion only about women’s healthcare, and were it not the murder of an unborn child, then the discovery of the bodies of thousands of dead children in the home of an abortionist would be a heartwarming reminder of his legacy of helping women, not a window into a… house of horrors…”
FB post from Lyric Gillett

Dr. Klopher’s story also brings to mind a movie that came out a year ago: Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. I haven’t had the stomach to watch it yet but it’s the grisly account of another former abortion provider, Kermit Gosnell (above on the left).

Here’s a brief summary:

On suspicion of murder and drug activity, “the FBI and the Pennsylvania Department of Health raided Gosnell’s clinic on Feb. 18, 2010. What they found inside was described by those on the raid as ‘filthy’ and ‘disgusting’:

There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea-infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets.[4]

All this led to Gosnell and several employees being charged with eight counts of murder, “24 felony counts of performing illegal abortions beyond the state of Pennsylvania’s 24-week time limit, and 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.” The murder charges related to Nepalese refugee, Karnamaya Mongar, who died following an abortion procedure, and seven newborns said to have been killed by having their spinal cords severed with scissors after being born alive!

In May 2013, Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and involuntary manslaughter… Gosnell was also convicted of 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.”[5]

Abortion rights supporters say Gosnell’s case just proves that women should have easier access to abortion so that they don’t have to seek care from an unqualified provider:

“This is exactly what happens when you place undue restrictions and you try to shame women to keep them from exercising their constitutional right to safe and legal abortions… You make them victims to people like Gosnell, because in their desperation they’ll turn anywhere.”[6]
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue

But as I’ve written elsewhere, I’m confident that a civilized society can find a way to protect one life in a way that doesn’t rely on destroying another. What gives us justification to elevate a woman’s body and social status over the value of her pre-born child? Is abortion really the best option we have to protect a woman’s economic and social equality?

I know we can do better. And when we do, we’ll no longer disconnect Klopfer and Gosnell from the horrors of the abortion industry, or call the protection of pre-born life, shaming women.

For more on Klopfer and Gosnell, see here. And for a better of vision of what it really means to champion the rights of all women, see below: