As we've noted, the liberal media generally and the Big Three broadcast networks in particular have studiously avoided paying attention to the Kermit Gosnell murder trial. The Philadelphia abortionist is charged with murdering newborns who survived abortion attempts and were born alive.
But aside from the criminal aspect of the case, there's other angle in the Gosnell matter that is of interest to political observers of the 2014 election cycle, particularly the Pennsylvania governor's race. One of the Democrats vying for the nomination to challenge Gov. Tom Corbett (R) is Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), who operated an abortion clinic from 1975-1988. J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier News has some great, incisive questions for Schwartz connected to the Gosnell matter, particularly whether Schwartz ever referred any patients to Gosnell. Her clinic stopped performing abortions in 1984, but continued with issuing referrals to other clinics. Schwartz has been curiously silent on the issue, and larger media outlets seem to be silent as well, failing to ask her if she ever referred women to Gosnell, for example.
While the 2014 election is still quite a ways off, the Democratic Party primary race is well under way – and rather heated. Schwartz hasn't been helped by going on the record saying, “I do think the respect for life is something that we were built on certainly in our country and that means – obviously different things to different people.” Schwartz uttered that gem last December on C-SPAN's Washington Journal in the aftermath of Sandy Hook.
She made the statement in answering a caller, who had observed that, “Roe v. Wade took away the right to life. We encourage the culture of death by giving money to Planned Parenthood - they kill more people. Now it’s terrible what happened in Connecticut but unborn persons killed with the support of taxpayer money – these are persons too.” Schwartz didn’t see the connection.
Fred Lucas and Eric Schiener of our sister site CNSNews.com noted that:
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion-provider in the nation. According to its own fact sheets, Planned Parenthood performed 985,731 abortions between 2008 and 2010 – 329,445 in 2010 alone. Planned Parenthood also receives taxpayer money every year and got $487.4 million in 2009-2010.
A Congressional Research Service report published on Aug. 28 said that the federal government gives Planned Parenthood about $66 million per year in Title X “family planning” grants. The law prohibits recipients from using Title X money for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. However, Planned Parenthood and other organizations that receive federal subsidies under Title X can take the federal money and do abortions at the same time as long use other dollars—not the dollars they got from the federal government--to pay for an actual abortion.
So, through Schwartz, is there a Planned Parenthood connection to Gosnell? Did they make referrals to his clinic? If so, when did they do it, and when did they know, if at all, that his abortion center was fraught with numerous health code violations? A gubernatorial candidate, with possible ties to Gosnell, is something worth investigating, and salient to the voters of Pennsylvania.
Mullane should be commended for asking the congresswoman these questions. Journalists in Pennsylvania, particularly in the major media markets of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, should take notice.
(H/T Twitchy)
