Gosnell death brings closure, renewed pro-life commitment, says investigating detective

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) — The death of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell in prison brings a sense of closure to one of the lead investigators, who relied on his deeply held Catholic faith to bring Gosnell to justice.

“I think it was a feeling of relief, knowing that even though he was already behind bars, he couldn’t hurt anybody anymore,” retired Detective James Wood told OSV News.

According to authorities, the 85-year-old Gosnell died March 1 at a state correctional facility in Huntingdon, Pa., while serving multiple sentences for murder, involuntary manslaughter and drug charges.

In 2010, Wood — then part of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s narcotics investigations unit — began tracking a pill mill that Gosnell was operating out of his Women’s Medical Center in the city’s western section. Wood and his team closed in, and unwittingly stumbled upon what a grand jury report called a “baby charnel house” operated by Gosnell.

For decades, Gosnells had performed late-term abortions amid medical and animal waste for a steady stream of low-income, mostly Black and Asian clients. Unlicensed staff routinely manipulated ultrasound images to underestimate the age of pre-born infants, while administering dangerous mixtures of powerful drugs to induce labor and prolong sedation.

Gosnell would often complete the abortions by severing babies’ spinal cords with scissors, a practice he described as “snipping” to “ensure fetal demise.” Often failing to pay for authorized disposal, he stored partial and intact infant remains throughout the facility.

Speaking to OSV News, Wood recalled the night he and his team raided Gosnell’s practice.

“It was totally disgusting in there,” he said. “I said to the nurse that was with us that night when we raided that place, ‘I can’t believe this place looks like this.’ And she said, ‘You’re just saying that because you’re a police officer.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m saying it because I’m a human being.'”

For years, local, state and federal agencies had turned a blind eye to the clinic, even when 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar — a Bhutan refugee who spoke no English — died from a fatal overdose of Demerol in November 2009, with Gosnell delaying calls to medics and falsifying reports to authorities.

In May 2013, Gosnell was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies, involuntary manslaughter in Mongar’s death, and 229 violations of Pennsylvania abortion regulations.

Less than two months later, he was convicted on the drug charges, adding 30 years to the three life sentences he received in the abortion case, which has been dramatized as both a 2018 film and a true crime podcast by producers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer.

Wood told OSV News that while Gosnell’s atrocities landed him in jail, “a lot of people live by his philosophy” by “sugarcoating the whole process” of abortion.

“It’s the ‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain’ dynamic,” said Wood, who has spoken at numerous pro-life events in the years since the Gosnell case.

Gosnell “was egregious, waiting for the baby to come out alive” before the killing, said Wood. “But what’s the difference between that and the baby being inside (the womb)?”

While those who perform abortions may not resort to the gruesome tactics employed by Gosnell — who once even used an unregulated experimental device to end the pregnancies of some 15 women — “the bottom line is they’re murdering babies,” Wood said.

“People are tricked by the illusion that (the baby) is ‘only a clump of cells,’ or ‘it can’t feel pain,'” he said. “But scientifically, you can’t deny the fact that’s a human being growing.”

The emotional scars of abortion are also underaddressed, he said, with women who have had abortions finding themselves “devastated years later” as “Planned Parenthood and all these abortion industries talk about women’s rights.”

Wood also described current pro-life efforts as “outstanding,” and pointed to “what seems to be a turning of the tide” with anecdotal reports of an increase in religious interest among younger people.

“And if that’s the case, then I think the only conclusion you could come to is that you have a positive for pro-life,” said Wood. “I think we’re going in the right direction. … We all know that God’s in charge and it has to start improving.”

Wood also commended those “who stand on the front lines at abortion sites and give their hearts and souls” to upholding the sanctity of human life — adding he hopes to join them, now that he’s retired.

“It’s so important, even if it saves one life,” said Wood.

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