Before we get started, let me be clear: the article that Melinda Henneberger wrote makes it clear that her personal answers to both questions were identical to mine, and probably had the same faint taste of vomit in the back of her mouth. But the Washington Post itself? …Yeah, I think that it’s hoping for a different answer for the second one.

Are there more abortion doctors like Kermit Gosnell?

…Yes, there are.

And do we want to know?

…Yes, we do.

As I noted, Melinda has some hard questions about the not-very-tacit-at-all coverup of the Gosnell atrocities, including this one: “But if the overarching goal is first, last and always protecting women’s health, why didn’t the National Abortion Federation inspector who turned down Gosnell’s membership application report the unsanitary conditions and safety violations she saw there?” It’s a question that has no good answer… assuming, of course, that you’re accepting abortion providers’ assurances as to what their overarching goals are. If you don’t, well… check out this second Live Action video that came out today (via Hot Air).

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A partial transcript: the person quoted is one DC abortionist Doctor Cesare Santangelo.

“Technically – you know, legally we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive. But, you know, it probably wouldn’t. It’s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point. Let’s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination part of the procedure here, you know? Then we would do things – we would – we would not help it. We wouldn’t intubate. It would be, you know, uh, a person, a terminal person in the hospital, let’s say, that had cancer, you know? You wouldn’t do any extra procedures to help that person survive. Like ‘do not resuscitate’ orders. We would do the same things here.”

Ed Morrissey demolishes this argument by noting that “the difference, of course, is that patients usually choose the “Do not resuscitate” order for themselves.” Like it or not, that is legally a human being at that point. The statements made by Dr. Santangelo makes a mockery of his own jurisdiction’s rules on DNR orders… unless, of course, the man is formally filling out and signing the paperwork ahead of time (“verbal orders are not valid”)*. Which I doubt that this doctor is doing, considering that said paperword would be Exhibit A in his medial malpractice hearing, or possibly his criminal trial.

So, yeah, we need to investigate matters more. Because people apparently lie about how many late-term abortions they’re doing. And that’s not acceptable.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Also: according to the DC Board of Health, minors are not allowed to authorize do-not-resuscitate procedures.