US doctor charged with killing babies at his clinic

LONDON - A US doctor has been charged with snapping the spinal cords of seven babies with a pair of scissors and performing illegal abortions for immigrants and the poor women.

Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell allegedly carried out the “barbaric” killings with the help of nine employees - one of them a 15- year-old high school student who was encouraged to perform operations and administer anaesthesia, the Daily Mail reported here.

According to prosecutors, the babies were killed after they were born during the sixth, seventh or eighth months of pregnancy.

Gosnell, 69, was charged with murdering the babies and a 41-year-old mother who died after being accidentally overdosed with anaesthetics.

Authorities suspect the physician may have killed hundreds of babies during his 30-year practice. He made $1.8 million in one year alone. He allegedly treated mainly poor and immigrant women who could not get the abortions anywhere else.

Officials said the “disgusting, squalid, horrifying” clinic - called the Women’s Medical Society - was more like a “House of Horrors”.

“There were bags and bottles holding aborted foetuses were scattered throughout the building,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was quoted as saying.

“There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose,” he added. “Some of this was kept in the refrigerator where the staff kept their lunches.”

Williams alleged Gosnell would induce labour in his patients and the babies would be born “squirming and crying” before having their spines cut.

Some of the filthy operation rooms had litter boxes and animals present at the times of the operations, according to court documents.

Police discovered the clinic’s gruesome secret after launching a probe into allegations that the doctor provided prescription drugs in an illegal “pill mill”.