Kermit Gosnell, born in Philadelphia in 1941, graduated as a physician in 1966. He initially worked in poor districts of his city and started a center financial aid for drug victims. He soon became a pro-abortion activist and quickly moved into action: in 1972, a year before the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, he opened an abortion clinic, which he has run for nearly 40 years. Business was booming and, to ensure a greater influx of clients, Gosnell worked at partnership with other centers in Delaware and Louisiana. So much activity aroused the interest of the health authorities, who repeatedly sanctioned Gosnell for misconduct internship. The first files uncovered facts such as employing staff without health qualifications, but successive inspections and complaints from former employees have ended up uncovering a huge chamber of horrors that ended with Gosnell's arrest in January 2011. He will now have to answer to a Grand Jury. The 280-page report , published by the court, reads like a horror novel. The list of offenses is endless, a crime anthology of sorts. Gosnell was particularly dedicated to late-term abortions, for which he charged up to $3,000, and also to those of teenagers, whom he reassured that the treatment he was going to give them was the same as the one he had given his own daughter. Blood flowed abundantly: former worker Stephen Massof testifies that he saw a hundred babies born alive, survivors of the abortion, who were then simply decapitated. Gosnell is charged with murder in the first Degree of seven of those newborns. He is also charged with third Degree murder of a woman in 2009 who died of a drug overdose.

A matter of this nature would have deserved the attention of the national media, which has not been the case. How can this silence be explained? American public opinion experts themselves have begun to study the phenomenon. The most plausible hypotheses mention the strong polarization that divides American society between pro-life and pro-choice advocates. Most journalists are in the latter camp and seem to have preferred to remain silent rather than report a case that could provide ammunition to the enemy.

Abortion advocates try to make believe that discussion ended long ago and that "voluntary termination of pregnancy" is a reality already peacefully assumed by Western societies. I believe that this is not the case, and cases such as Kermit Gosnell's remind us of this in an abrupt way. We must continue to talk about abortion. It would be desirable to do so, as befits a democratic and pluralistic society, in a respectful, sincere and civilized tone.