Yes. So why wasn't it news? Pro-choice writer Megan McArdle of The Daily Beastnotes that it's about fear of where the story would go, and what it would require writers to confront: "Gosnell is accused of grisly crimes that I didn't want to think about. ... I understand why my readers suspect me, and other pro-choice mainstream journalists, of being selective -- of not wanting to cover the story because it showcased the ugliest possibilities of abortion rights. The truth is that most of us tend to be less interested in sick-making stories -- if the sick-making was done by 'our side.' "
It was fine to dwell at length on the Newtown, Conn., shootings, because those could be blamed on the evil NRA. But writing about these dead innocents might be a political liability instead of a political asset. It might have been awkward for President Obama.
It's also true that in our polarized -- and moralistic -- political culture, shouts of Have you no decency? are so common that it's easy to assume that pretty much any such story is probably exaggerated and politicized. And the reports in the Gosnell case were ghoulish enough that it was probably especially easy to believe that they were exaggerated. Alas, that turned out not to be the case. It was no doubt Powers' status as a liberal, and as a woman, that let her break through the wall of denial in a way that others might not have been able to.
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