Former patient sobs on the stand in Gosnell trial

A woman was in tears Tuesday as she described being hospitalized for two weeks after a painful late-term abortion performed by Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

 

Testifying at his trial, Shayquana Abrams, who got the abortion in 2008 when she was 17, said the three-day-procedure was more painful than labor.

Abrams had originally sought an abortion at a Delaware clinic where Gosnell worked, but was referred to his Philadelphia location, where state laws allows abortions later into pregnancies.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors brought a hospital bed with stirrups and an ultrasound machine into the courtroom to re-create the setting at the West Philadelphia clinic.

Also taking the stand Tuesday was Adrienne Moton, a former Gosnell employee who has already pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Moton admitted to cutting the spines of at least 10 babies, and said Gosnell did the same to terminate pregnancies.

The prosecution showed jurors a cell phone picture Moton had taken of an aborted fetus she had measured at nearly 30 weeks along.

Other former employees are expected to take the stand as the trial continues.

In cross-examining Moton, Gosnell’s lawyer, attorney Jack McMahon, denied the murder charges, saying fetuses were terminated in utero with an injection of a lethal drug before being delivered.

In his opening statement, McMahon also questioned the prosecution’s claim that babies were aborted after the legal 24-week age limit, calling gestational ages inexact estimates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.