Forward: I am pro-life, and this movie is made by mostly pro-life people. That said, this movie is not about being pro-life. This movie is about the system protecting a serial killer because of his profession and not wanting to give anyone an excuse to question “reproductive rights.”
Last night, I went to see the movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” in a completely sold out theater. I have seen many movies in theaters and usually there is a buzz of excited chatter after a movie. This movie theater was absolutely silent after the movie was over. The only thing I could say to my husband in the theater was, “let’s go home so we can cuddle the baby.”
The movie started out as most movies do, showing the back stories of some of the main protagonists. But this was only after showing a character mentally struggling with an idea before finally taking a picture of something.
The undercover police officers played Dean Cain (Woody) and Alfonzo Rachel (Stark) make a successful drug bust. The FBI and DEA show up. The woman caught filling prescriptions identifies Dr. Gosnell as the doctor writing the illegal prescriptions. The police officers are allowed to tag along with the DEA and FBI when they investigate Dr. Gosnell’s clinic based on suspicious testimonies made by clinic employees.
When they arrive at the clinic they are struck by the disarray, the smells, and the cats wandering around the clinic. There are biohazard bags everywhere as well as a general smell of filth. Stark actually steps into a pile of cat droppings and it is later found out that the patients are sometimes forced to relieve themselves in the hallway as there are not enough bathrooms.
Woody and Stark make their way around the clinic and come across a cabinet filled with specimen containers containing the feet of fetuses. The feet in the containers really struck me. Dr. Gosnell later explains that he keeps them as “tissue samples” for genetic identification and research. Ok, I understand keeping tissue samples. I am a medical professional. Blood and/ gray matter would be highly useful for that purpose and you obtain these as part of a normal abortion procedure. The fact that he was keeping whole body parts and the same body part of each fetus gives rise to the theory of the trophy keeping of a serial killer.
From there the search continues into Gosnell’s house. His house is also in absolute disarray. It is flea infested and there is a dead cat which is mostly decayed in the basement. He also seems completely unphased that the police are in his house as he cooks himself breakfast then sits down to the piano to play classical music. As a person who has spend a lot of personal time researching anti-social behavior, this has all the hallmark signs of psychopathy. Not all psychopaths are serial killers, but all serial killers are psychopaths.
I don’t want to give a full movie synopsis because I want people to get out and see the movie because we need to get the word out there that this is an important movie. It is not a strictly pro-life movie. You can walk into the movie pro-choice and walk out of the movie pro-choice. What you can’t do is walk out thinking that it is okay for a clinic to go 13 years without being inspected by the department of health just because it is an abortion clinic, especially as complaints about the clinic pile up including possible wrongful deaths. As DA McGuire says in the movie, even nail salons are inspected by the DOH every year.
Another important thing that is brought to light in the movie is the problem with modern media. It is ironically a pro-choice blogger who forces the mainstream media to start covering the case. She says at the end (the quote may not be perfect, but it was something like this), “I am a journalist. I uncover the facts. I don’t change what they are to fit my agenda.” I caught myself scoffing in the theater not because I disagree with her, but because this definition of journalism is dead. I have seen article after article published by revered media outlets such as CNN, NBC, and even Fox where the headlines and/or cover photos of the stories have nothing to do with the article or are completely disproved by the body of the article. They get away with headlines and photos that are absolute lies because the articles tell the truth. The problem is, most people don’t read the whole articles and are instead just spewing headlines they read or reposting stories with click-bait pictures that have nothing to do with the story.
I believe in calling out my own side when they are wrong so the specific story I am going to call out will be from Fox. Fox posted a story online about a shooting. If you actually read the article, it was about a work place shooting. Why then was the picture for the article of a school bus?
To be an honest person, you have to be willing to be critical of your own side. That is why I think that this movie is so important. Sunlight is the best disinfectant as the mother of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale taught us. This is true for the right, the left, the catholic church (and any other religion), pro-lifers, pro-choicers, etc. If you try to hide the faults of your own side, when they come to light, as they always do, it calls your whole ideology into question.
As a Christian, I will take this argument further to comment on my own “tribe” as tribalism has become so widespread and dangerous in our culture. The second commandment, when accurately translated, says “Do not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” This is the commandment that includes absolute condemnation if broken. That’s because to misuse the name of God includes doing evil in God’s name. The reason why God will not forgive someone who does this is because it poisons people against God himself when in truth, it is you doing the evil and not God.
I say all of this to get back to why the movie is so important. Why couldn’t they just treat Dr. Gosnell as the serial killer that he was and bring him to justice as soon as suspicions were mounted? Because he was an abortion doctor. They couldn’t call into question the merits of “reproductive rights,” so they let a serial killer continue his work unencumbered.
I am calling all readers to action. Go see the movie. It is extremely important, not just in the abortion argument, though that is part of it. Mostly, to me, the importance of this movie is that each side needs to be willing to call out the bad actors on their side. In the short term, it may cast your side in a bad light. But in the long term, hiding bad actors calls into question your side entirely.
I hope you enjoyed my review of the movie and the commentary. I hope everyone will get to see the movie.
Louisa Koch 