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PHILADELPHIA, April 26, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While attorneys for the prosecution and defense in the trial of Kermit Gosnell will be making their closing arguments to the jury, leaders of the pro-life movement will make their plea for justice to a different Judge. 

A prayer vigil will begin on Monday, April 29, at 12:00 noon, in front of the Courthouse, when closing arguments begin. The vigil will be led by Rev. Pat Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition, Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC For Life, and Troy Newman and Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue.

The courthouse is located at 1301 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Pro-life leaders are also calling Americans from across the nation to join with them in prayer and fasting while the verdict is being considered.

They will hold a brief news conference before the prayer vigil begins.

“We will be gathering in prayer and public witness to ask God that these violent and barbaric acts of violence against women and children would be brought to justice,” said Rev. Mahoney. “We will also be praying that we would live in a nation with human rights and equality would be guaranteed and embraced for all, and we would never have to witness atrocities like this again.

“Sadly, the tragedy and horror surrounding the actions of Kermit Gosnell show that government officials and the pro-choice movement are more interested in protecting abortion rights then they are protecting the rights and health of women and their children.”

Kermit Gosnell is on trial for the murder of four viable, living newborns whom he allegedly killed after they exited the birth canal. One of them had been alive for 20 minutes before the procedure, according to eyewitness testimony. Other former employees said pre-abortive newborns cried, screamed, or showed undeniable signs of life before the grisly procedure.

For participants, the Gosnell trial is far more than a “local crime story,” as one Washington Post reporter had famously described the proceedings. Some 37 pro-life leaders signed a letter this week stating that “such moments as Emmett Till’s funeral, and the graphic pictures that emerged from a post-Nazi Germany detailing the Holocaust” changed hearts and minds on pivotal issues.

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“The trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell is just such a moment,” the letter continues.

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Fr. Gensemer called the trial a “defining moment in the history of human rights.” 

“When we stand outside of that court room on Monday, we will be praying that justice will prevail and that the innate human dignity of the women and children horrifically brutalized inside Gosnell's 'shop of horrors' will be recognized and upheld,” he said.

Gosnell's Women's Medical Society on the west side of Philadelphia has become totemic of the worst abuses of the abortion industry, abuses Monday's leaders say are far from confined to his now-closed facility. 

Newman and Sullenger maintain a searchable database of public health code violations and complaints about abortion facilities and abortionists nationwide, AbortionDocs.org. Andy Moore, who has been threatened with deportation by the FBI, maintains a similar information clearinghouse, AbortionWiki.org

“We remain acutely aware that abortion clinics across America are operating in Gosnell-like conditions committing violations that Gosnell also committed,” Newman said. 

In addition to charges of murder, infanticide, and a third-degree murder charge for the death of 41-year-old legal immigrant Karnamaya Mongar, Gosnell faces more than 380 charges. Among the allegations in the grand jury report are an omnipresent disregard for the law, or the health and safety of his patients demonstrated by his allowing untrained staff to perform medical procedures, keeping his facility in unsanitary condition, disregarding record-keeping laws, abusing the corpses of aborted babies, killing female patients (two women died at his facility), and infanticide.

Just this week, LifeSiteNews.com learned that the Ohio Department of Health closed a Capital Care Network abortion affiliate in the Cleveland area for unsanitary conditions, allowing untrained staff to perform procedures, and disregarding record-keeping laws. 

Thousands of people have also urged that late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart's medical license be revoked after Jennifer Morbelli died in his care in February.

Last July, Tonya Reaves died in a Chicago Planned Parenthood after being allowed to hemorrhage and bleed for five hours. When she was left at the hospital, Planned Parenthood did not tell doctors what had happened to her. A scathing legal complaint accuses them of “abandonment of a patient.” 

“We will continue to pray for justice in the Gosnell case and that all abortionists of his ilk will soon be brought to justice,” Newman said. “May the Gosnell case speed the day when abortion is abolished in this country for good.”