Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) today issued the following statement upon the issuance of a verdict convicting Philadelphia-based late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of first degree murder and one count of manslaughter among more than two-hundred other charges:

“Every life has value and for every life ended at the hands of Kermit Gosnell, a butcher who masqueraded as a ‘women’s’ health care professional,’ there should be justice. Today’s verdict, while limited in its scope, delivers some justice for each of Gosnell’s victims – every woman who trusted him in their vulnerability and every child whose life was callously and brutally ended at his direction.

“We should all ponder that while multiple murder charges against Kermit Gosnell were up for debate, no one ever questioned whether Gosnell’s intent was to kill each of his infant victims. Of course their death was his intent – such is the case with all abortions. But in our justice system premeditating and exacting the demise of babies is only a crime if a child is fully outside the womb. We would do well as a society to consider what deciding murder based upon geographic technicalities reveals about our collective conscious.

“As long as the tragedy of elective abortion is legal in this country, there must be oversight, and there must be rigorous scrutiny – regardless of whether popular culture, special interests, or government considers the turf politically sacrosanct. In Philadelphia, evil dressed in a white coat went unchecked for years and women and children paid the price for that abdication.”

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