As a podcast on iTunes, listenable/downloadable onscreen at Taki’s Magazine, or as a transcript here.

In this week’s broadcast I cover the horrible story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist on trial for murder.

After an account of the case and some grisly witness testimony, I note that:

There have been two sidebar issues. One: Was this case under-reported because most reporters are liberals and liberals are big fans of abortion? Two: Was this case under-reported because Gosnell and most of his staff and patients were, as you may have divined from the names there, black, and reporters go easy on blacks?

I chew over those some, coming out agnostic on both.  Then:

I can't resist noting one little detail on that second sidebar, though. It's a little snapshot of race and class in America today.

Gosnell had a white employee named Eileen O'Neill, who presented herself as a licensed doctor, even though she wasn't one. He also had a black employee, Tina Baldwin, completely untrained in medicine or nursing and originally hired as a receptionist. Both these women administered medications, helped with procedures, and wrote prescriptions.

Tina Baldwin, that's the black one, testified in court that Ms. O'Neill, that's the white one, kept her office neat, in contrast with the rest of the clinic, which was filthy and disorderly. She further testified that Gosnell steered wealthy or white patients to O'Neill's office. Quote from Tina: "Nine out of 10 times, if the patient was white … he didn't want me to [give the medications], because he wanted to meet with them himself," end quote. Tina said that Gosnell told his staff, quote, "that's the way it is," end quote.

Yep, that's the way it is.