Abortion

With equipment from one of Kermit Gosnell's abortion procedure rooms arranged in the courtroom before her, a former clinic worker tearfully described how she and Gosnell "snipped" the necks of infants born during late-term abortions. Adrienne Moton told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury hearing Gosnell's murder trial Tuesday morning that during the three years she worked at his West Philadelphia clinic she "couldn't give you a number" for how many times the 72-year-old doctor used the "snipping" technique.

The Feb. 18, 2010, raid on the West Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, recalled FBI agent Jason Huff, was planned so agents would not encounter patients. It was 8:30 p.m., and agents watching Gosnell confirmed that he had been working all day at a Delaware abortion clinic. When Gosnell arrived at 3801 Lancaster Ave., Huff said, agents showed him a search warrant and went inside. "We were quite surprised when we walked in and saw what we saw," Huff told a Philadelphia jury Monday.

AS THE capital-murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell gets under way Monday morning, and unfolds over the next six to eight weeks, both the anti-abortion and abortion-rights camps will be taking a keen interest. Gosnell, 72, who owned a now-closed West Philly abortion clinic that prosecutors dubbed a fetus-strewn "house of horrors," faces the possibility of a death sentence for allegedly delivering seven premature babies and killing them by cutting their spinal cords with scissors.

KERMIT GOSNELL, the former West Philly abortion doctor charged with eight counts of murder, was portrayed by his defense attorney Monday as the victim of a "prosecutorial lynching" by an "elitist, racist prosecution. " The attorney, Jack McMahon, told the jury in his opening statement that the prosecution would call expert witnesses who would unfairly apply Mayo Clinic standards to a clinic for poor women in a "nitty-gritty" neighborhood. "They don't run an urban clinic; a low-cost, urban, poverty-stricken clinic," McMahon said of the experts.

BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota on Friday moved one step closer to adopting what would be the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, with lawmakers sending the Republican governor measures that could set the state up for a costly legal battle over the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure. The North Dakota Senate approved two bills Friday, one banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and another prohibiting the procedure because of genetic defects such as Down syndrome.

HERE'S A QUICK LOOK at where Pope Francis I stands on some key issues: * Economics: There's considerable evidence that the new pope favors programs aimed at reducing poverty in society and is not a fan of the wave of austerity budgets now popular in the U.S. and Europe. * Gay marriage: He strongly opposed Argentina's 2010 law that legalized same-sex matrimony, calling it "a destructive proposal to God's plan. " * Same-sex couple adoption: At the same time, he opposed adoption by gay couples, saying such arrangements are harmful to children.

JURY SELECTION continued Monday in the murder trial of a Philadelphia abortion provider charged with killing a woman and seven babies. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running a rogue clinic in West Philadelphia and letting untrained staff perform late-stage abortions. The trial is expected to start this week and last nearly two months. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart is seeking six alternate jurors in addition to the 12 regular jurors. Ten jurors were chosen last week. Gosnell, 72, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the infant deaths.

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho has become the first state to have its so-called fetal-pain law banning abortions after 20 weeks struck down by the federal courts. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill was handed down Wednesday as part of a ruling that also overturns other abortion restrictions in Idaho. Also on Wednesday, Arkansas adopted a law banning abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound. The Idaho ruling is binding not only in that state but could have a persuasive effect in lawsuits challenging similar bans in other states - such as Arizona, where a suit is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Abortion remains one of the most divisive issues Americans discuss - if they discuss it. Frequently they don't, because the subject is volatile enough to end friendships. The argument is over one basic question: When does personhood begin? There may be general agreement that life begins during gestation, but at what point? Upon fertilization? At birth? Or somewhere in between? Young people, for the most part, don't view abortion the way their parents do, mirroring a generational divide on homosexuality.