Rick Garnett and others have taken note of the “media blackout” of the homidice trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Grassroot efforts to shame the journalistic establishment into at least mentioning the trial seem to be working, however. Now, in a rather transparently desperate ploy, the President of NARAL Pro-Choice America is trying to spin the coverage her way by claiming that the gruesome practices that went on in Gosnell’s abortion clinic give us a ” window into the world before Roe v. Wade .”
This picture of the “world before Roe ” is a recycling of long exploded myths confected by the abortion movement in its early days. The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a founder of the movement (and himself an abortionist) who later became a pro-life champion, spilled the beans many years ago in his memoir. I discuss the matter a bit in the tribute I did to Dr. Nathanson shortly after his death.