A Pennsylvania doctor is accused of running a `` house of horrors '' in which he performed abortions past the 24-week limit allowed by law -- even allegedly as late as eight months into pregnancy . He used scissors , authorities say , to sever the spinal cords of newborns who emerged from their mothers still alive . Now Dr. Kermit Gosnell , 72 , is about to stand trial . He has pleaded not guilty . If he 's convicted , prosecutors want him put to death . `` A doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living , breathing babies , who would survive with proper medical attention , is committing murder under the law , '' Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said . A grand jury investigation determined that health and licensing officials had received repeated reports about Gosnell 's practices for two decades , but had taken no action , Williams said . Gosnell 's attorney has cautioned against a `` rush to judgment . '' `` Dr. Gosnell should enjoy the same presumption of innocence anyone in this country , you or me , should get if we were charged with a crime , '' William J. Brennan said in 2011 . Jury selection was set to begin Monday . The charges . Gosnell faces eight counts of murder : for the deaths of seven babies , and in the case of a 41-year-old woman who died of an anesthetic overdose during a second-trimester abortion . The babies were born alive in the sixth , seventh and eighth months of pregnancy , but their spinal cords were severed with scissors , Williams said . 2011 : Philadelphia doctor accused of murdering patient , newborns . `` It was a house of horrors beyond any type of definition or explanation I can humbly try to give , '' Williams told CNN in January 2011 , shortly after Gosnell was charged . `` And it 's very sad for the women that were there , that were subjected to such horrific and barbaric -- I would say medical treatment , but it was n't medical treatment . '' Several other people who worked in the west Philadelphia medical office have already pleaded guilty to related charges . A judge involved in the case said in 2011 that one of those employees was expected to testify against Gosnell . The practice . The practice , called the Women 's Medical Society , served mostly low-income minority women for years . Gosnell is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist , Williams said . Originally , he said , the clinic used another doctor as a consultant so it could receive a license to perform abortions in 1979 . `` The doctor gained a reputation . People far and wide knew that he performed abortions at any time , '' Williams said . 2011 : Philadelphia abortion clinic worker pleads guilty . In a 2010 interview with the Philadelphia Daily News , Gosnell said he was `` a positive force in the community . '' The reporter who interviewed him , David Gambacorta , told CNN that Gosnell believed he was helping an under-served population in his West Philadelphia neighborhood . The scene . When authorities searched Gosnell 's office , they found bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses scattered throughout the building . Jars containing the severed feet of babies lined a shelf . Furniture and equipment was blood-stained , dusty and broken . `` My grasp of the English language does n't really allow me to fully describe how horrific this clinic was -- rotting bodies , fetal remains , the smell of urine throughout , blood-stained , '' Williams said . Williams described one of the alleged infant deaths . `` The baby had been born and was on a cold steel table and murdered by using -- there 's no medical basis for snipping or taking scissors and putting them into the neck and cutting , severing the spinal cord . It 's just homicide . It 's just murder , '' Williams told CNN . According to Philly.Com , a joint website of the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer , Gosnell was back in court last Thursday , to mull a possible plea bargain . It 's unclear what the outcome of the meeting was , because of a gag order imposed on attorneys and other people involved in the case . 2011 : Survivor of accused abortionist Kermit Gosnell tells her story .
Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with murdering seven babies and a pregnant woman . He 's accused of killing infants who came out of the womb alive . Gosnell has pleaded not guilty . Comment: The first thing to understand about abortion in America, as it was before Roe v. Wade :