This weekend, Bret Baier and Fox News ran an hour-long intensive look at the trial of Kermit Gosnell and the issues it raises about the abortion industry and the regulators who routinely ignored complaints about Gosnell’s clinics and others like it.  Fox heavily promoted the show, easily grabbing attention in the media vacuum about the details of the case.  Baier’s report delves deep into Gosnell’s history, including human experimentation that went wrong in 1973, as well as into the current case itself.

No one knows what ratings Fox got for its exposé, but Gosnell’s attorney angrily accused Fox of attempting to tamper with the jury during proceedings this morning. JD Mullane reports that the judge will ask the jury — which has not been sequestered — whether any of them watched the show:

#Gosnell atty Jack McMahon fuming over Fox News special "See No Evil." Will ask judge to quiz jury if any saw show.

— jd mullane (@jdmullane) May 6, 2013

McMahon said Fox News "See No Evil" about Kermit Gosnell designed to sway jury. "It was irresponsible to put on that show," he said.

— jd mullane (@jdmullane) May 6, 2013

At #Gosnell trial, Judge Minehart tells jurors to notify his staff if they saw Fox News Gosnell special "See No Evil" broadcast Friday.

— jd mullane (@jdmullane) May 6, 2013

https://twitter.com/jdmullane/status/331430539833798656

These aren’t the only questions being raised about Gosnell, nor are they limited to this particular courtroom.  Allyson Schwartz, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, is being asked whether she referred any women to Gosnell’s clinic while she worked as executive director of a Planned Parenthood affiliate.  So far, Schwartz isn’t answering:

With the case getting national attention, and with the congresswoman’s political profile rapidly rising, some in Philadelphia’s pro-life community have begun to wonder about Schwartz’s own relationship with Gosnell’s longtime Philly practice. Did the Blackwell Center refer late-term patients to Gosnell while Schwartz was its director? Both Schwartz’s congressional office and her gubernatorial campaign have so far failed to answer requests for on-the-record answers to these questions.

At Blackwell, the answers aren’t clear, either. The doctors there don’t perform abortions on site, but they do refer patients to abortion clinics in the area. These days, Blackwell’s policy is to provide no referrals for any patient seeking an abortion past 21 weeks of gestation. The law in Pennsylvania allows for abortions up until 24 weeks, but a Blackwell employee who answered the phone says a woman after 21 weeks would have to travel to New Jersey or Delaware to get an abortion that late. Why?

“No clinics in Pennsylvania will take patients past 21 weeks,” the employee confirmed.

Not anymore, but there was a time when at least one clinic in the Philadelphia area was performing late-term abortions on women who were past 21 weeks of gestation: Gosnell’s. Late-term abortions were his specialty, particularly for poor minority women. If a woman at 23 weeks came to Blackwell looking for an abortion, where would Blackwell refer her to if not Gosnell’s clinic?

Most juries carry out their duties with integrity and care, and I’d bet that the judge will find that none of them watched Fox News over the weekend and this special.  That’s not going to be true in the court of public opinion, though.  If you missed it when it aired, here’s the entire report on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ngslwnr8M