That’s the assessment of Open Doors spokesman Jerry Dykstra, who says there were multiple attacks.

“Dozens of rockets, shells, and mortars exploded near places set aside for a day of prayer in Syria. Unsecured roads made it difficult for Christians to travel to the sites set aside for public prayer services,” Dykstra said.

Dykstra adds that weather conditions also created a challenge.

“Also, unusual rain, lightening, and a sudden drop in temperature further hampered the events,” Dykstra said. “However, our sources in Syria tell us that prayer services went forward anyway.”

The prayer time was promoted by Open Doors – at church sites both in Syria as well as the United States. The focus was the disasters that have been inflicted on Christians in Syria because of the civil war, where essentially a radical al-Qaida-type faction is rebelling against a different Muslim power structure, catching Christians in the middle.

Open Doors reported that there was a huge participation among the churches remaining in Syria.

Because of the civil war, some stories also are slow in being reported in the free world.

One such story comes from Alliance Church of Damascus pastor Edward Awabdeh. Awabdeh says he and his wife have decided that they will stay in Syria, no matter the risk.

“Fighting gets closer and closer to where we live. It’s now at some hundreds of meters of a distance,” he said. “Back in March, mortar grenades exploded next to our other church building in Jaramana around 17:00 hours. There were people in the church but no people hurt of the congregation. Every day we have several explosions around that church.

“On the 14th of March we returned to Damascus. My wife Rana said to me it was not a good idea, so close to the second anniversary of the revolution on 15 March. She wanted to stay till 16 March,” Awabdeh said. “But we went back. We got out of our car at our church building in Damascus, a bullet fell on Rana’s jacket.”

“You see, we had to stay,” Rana said.

“You see how God is protecting you,” Awabdeh added.

The pastor said that even in the middle of a civil war, they are still able to have peace in their heart and mind. The pastor says that in spite of the constant danger and shelling, his church is strong.

“The church is doing very well. Many are involved in the ministry, and we are getting together, there is a big commitment,” Awabdeh said. “It is very obvious that God is doing something. We hear people that come to our church now saying: Although we lost everything, we won Christ. This is the time for the church, we feel this strongly as our time.”

He said now it is time for the church to work – to give hope, spread peace and support refugees.

“Humanly speaking it is not easy to find peace. Last night the whole building was shaking because of the bombings. Honestly, it is amazing the peace me and my wife feel, there is no explanation for that, besides the Lord,” Awabdeh said.

“We also have a big sense of pastorship, of pastoring the people, stay side by side with them, to encourage them. Our presence is also a message: we have to stay, we have to trust in His protection. We’re not living by anxiety; the Lord is giving us a wonderful time,” Awabdeh said.

However, Awabdeh says there is the heartbreaking side.

“On the other hand many of the church had to leave because of the risks and their safety. We lost some real core people. That makes us sad; that breaks our hearts,” Awabdeh said.

“They are flesh of our flesh, they were very effective people. Right now some 30 percent of the people have left; two out of five elders, three out of seven worship leaders, three out of five youth leaders,” Awabdeh said.

“It is risky, yes. There are explosions, all is very unpredictable. When you need to drive through the city you run a high risk. Roads are closed. Twenty-four hours a day there is shooting and shelling,” Awabdeh said. “But for us Christians it is not the same, we have a different ‘GPS’ leading us. Thank God for his presence in our lives, for his hand, for his peace. God really laid his hands on us.”

He said he believes many of those who left will return if and when the situation stabilizes, although some have emigrated to other points and won’t be back.

A Syrian-born American citizen who is using the name Zak to protect his family still in Syria told WND his family is concerned about the retaliation that will take place against Christians if the rebels take power.

Zak says his family believes that the U. S. is mistaken to believe the rebels are preferable to Assad.

“If at the deepest levels of our intelligence operations there has been an understanding or belief that these radicalized elements could be neutralized when need be (after Assad falling), no one is buying it,” Zak’s family said.

“They will turn on us, they will harm innocent people as well as our interests as a nation. Events counter to our values and principles as a nation would be minimalized so as not to appear to be a direct result of our policies and strategic efforts in supporting it,” Zak’s family said in a statement.

“It would become not about what is happening, it would be about what is being reported as truth that matters,” they said.

Zak also agrees with reports that American news outlets have largely ignored the plight of Syrian Christians. Zak adds that his family is also upset with the U. S. government for supporting the rebels.

“The West has essentially made a deal with the devil. They’ve put immediate political interests ahead of human interests and our nation’s principles. We’ve altogether ignored the reality of what our policies will ultimately mean to the Syrian people and Christians there,” Zak said.

“To my family and friends, there is absolute and unquestioned agreement that if the Assad regime falls there will be extended chaos. Those with an extremist ideology will take control because no one in the West will take the massive necessary steps to prevent it,” Zak said.

“If this happens, what really takes place and human rights issues will become hidden behind a push to report on efforts to stabilize the country through political discourse. It will not be reported but in passing,” Zak said.

The strike was in retaliation for the SRF’s successful campaign to capture the North Kordofan village of Um Buwaba. One report says the Sudanese army lost over 400 soldiers in the counterattack.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, USA President John Eibner says the victory is big: “The SPLA-N scored a significant military success on the ground.”

International Christian Concern’s Africa specialist William Stark told WND that despite efforts by Sudan President Omar al-Bahir to paint the rebels as Christian troublemakers, the SPLA-N and the SRF aren’t completely Christian.

“In Sudan, the SPLA-N situation is primarily a political conflict that has some religious elements,” Stark said.

Yet Open Doors-USA spokesman Jerry Dykstra says the Sudanese government is calling for a holy war against the rebels and increasingly turning the teeth of its attacks on Christians.

“Since the Sudan Revolutionary Front’s successful take of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, the government of Sudan has embarked on the mobilization of people and have called for support to jihad,” Dykstra said in a statement to the press.

Dykstra adds that the successful military operation only intensified an existing anti-Christian campaign.

“Sudanese Christians have seen a drastic increase in pressure, with the closing down of churches and expulsion of foreign workers,” Dykstra said in a statement for the press.

Dykstra adds that the regime is turning its anger on the Orthodox Church in Sudan.

“It seems that the Church in Khartoum may expect renewed scrutiny and accompanying pressure,” Dykstra said.

“The Sudan Tribune reported on Tuesday that the chairman of the Islamic Centre for Preaching and Comparative Studies, Ammar Saleh, slammed his government for not taking decisive action against missionaries operating boldly in the country,” Dykstra said.

“According to Saleh, cases of apostasy and atheism are on the rise in Sudan, while authorities are negligent in addressing the issue. According to the independent media agency, Saleh appealed to the official bodies and the community to take a stand against Christianization,” Dykstra also said through a press statement.

A report issued by Open Doors, USA says that Islamic authorities in Sudan claim that 109 people have converted to Christianity.

Stark says the government counteroffensive was expected. The Christians can expect retaliation even more.

“Ever since Sudan and South Sudan split, the Khartoum government has been seeking to become more Islamic. Shortly after the separation of the two countries, President Al-Bashir told his supporters that he would make sure that Sharia was an influential part of the new government,” Stark said. “This was not just rhetoric. Churches have been closed down, foreign Christians have been deported and Christian literature has been hunted down and destroyed by government employees.”

Stark says the combined SPLA-N and SRF offensive is part of larger strategy to potentially win separation from Sudan for the Nuba Mountain and Kordofan regions.

“The SPLA is active in the Nuba Mountains, which feel that the Nuba Mountains region should have been part of South Sudan,” Stark said. “This sentiment is probably true because ethnically and religiously, the Nuba Mountains are more similar to South Sudan as opposed to Sudan.”

Stark adds that there is one major reason Khartoum wouldn’t let the Nuba Mountains go.

“The reason the Nuba Mountains were included in Sudan instead of South Sudan is because of the oil fields located there,” Stark said.

Stark says the government’s counteroffensive will attempt to punish the Nuba people.

“Because this group is active in the Nuba Mountains, the Khartoum government is bombing the region, indiscriminately. This obviously affects the civilian population,” Stark said.

Eibner agrees – the people can expect more bombing.

“Knowing the political culture of Khartoum, they will want to retaliate in a big way as soon as possible and to do so with a lot of rhetoric against the infidel enemy,” Eibner said.

Reports coming from Sudan indicate that retaliation has been swift and brutal.

Nuba Reports says that Sudanese Air Force bombers have launched air strikes against civilian targets.

One of the attacks was on the village of Kumu, killing one person. A second attack was on an elementary school.

“Two people were wounded when four bombs struck a primary school for orphans in Kauda,” the Nuba Reports story said. “The bombs – dropped from a Sudanese Air Force Antonov – struck the Father Cliff Primary School for Orphans around 1:45 p.m., while students were taking their lunch break.”

Authorities say the relief worker, Julia Juincy, of the U. S. Agency for International Development, was taken when her car broke down while she was traveling from Garissa to Habesein in northern Kenya.

Police spokesman Emmanuel Chiluma reported that Juincy called to say she was leaving Garissa, but never arrived at her destination. Her car was found along the highway.

Detectives say her cell phone has been traced to the Kenyan village of Nkubu.

International Christian Concern’s Africa analyst William Stark says the incident bears the marks of the Islamist group.

“Al-Shabaab has been known to kidnap Western aid workers and did so in October of 2011,” Stark said. “That’s one of the factors which prompted Kenya to make a military incursion into Somalia.”

“It seems that al-Shabaab took this woman because they want to hold her hostage and make some money,” Stark said.

This is not new to al-Shabaab.

The BBC reported in June 2012 that al-Shabaab carried out a raid and kidnapping in a Kenyan border town.

Reported at the time was that a Kenyan driver was killed and four foreign aid workers kidnapped near a refugee camp in Kenya close to the border with Somalia.

The foreigners are from Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines, and worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council. They were traveling in a convoy when they were ambushed by gunmen in Dadaab.

The report followed a 2011 “Daily Motion” report of the kidnapping of two Spanish doctors with Doctors Without Borders.

The kidnappings are taking place at the same time as a developing pattern of anti-Christian violence in Kenya.

WND reported in April 2012 about an attack in the coastal city of Mtwapa, about 100 miles from the Kenya-Somalia border.

A band of Muslims launched a grenade attack against a crowd of 150 Christians attending an open-air meeting near the Kenyan town of Mtwapa, killing two and wounding more than 30, authorities report.

Human-rights groups say that the Muslim attackers were hyped into action by a militant Muslim preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the Christian gathering.

The proposed resolution cited Gosnell for the “untrained and uncertified personnel performing abortions, nonmedical personnel administering medications, grossly unsanitary and dangerous conditions, violations of law regarding storage of human remains, and above all, willful murder of infants born alive by severing their spinal cords.”

Instead, a substitute resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that “abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices should be … prevented.”

The original cited Gosnell by name; the substitute only references “a physician at the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia.”

It was Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Barbera Boxer, D-Calif., who stopped consideration of the resolution by dismissing the reports of infanticides that took place at Gosnell’s business.

The senators successfully substituted SR 133 with SR 134, a resolution that all medical facilities that commit abusive activities be investigated and prosecuted. The Blumenthal-Boxer resolution cites several cases of apparent malpractice and says “incidents of abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices should be condemned and prevented and the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The original resolution, authored by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and co-sponsored by 20 other senators, would have encouraged Congress and all 50 states to “gather information about and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices and the interstate referral of women and girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second- and third-trimester procedures.”

It cited the nation’s belief “that every human life is precious from its very beginning” and also said:

• “No women should ever be abandoned, by policy or practice, to the depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, or uninspected clinic operating outside of the law.”
• ‘The report of the grand jury … of the policies and practices of Dr. Kermit Gosnell … found multiple violations of law and public policy.”
• “The report … documented a pattern, over a period of two decades, at the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia of untrained and uncertified personnel performing abortions.”

The resolution also noted that “Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware have been described by former employees as resembling a ‘meat market.’”

The nation, the resolution said, must prevent such situations.

Catholic Association President Maureen Ferguson, in cooperation with other pro-life groups, denounced the Democratic senators’ actions and said the resolution properly exposes the reality of what went on in Gosnell’s clinic.

“The Gosnell trial has given us a rare window into both the legal and illegal abortion practices in the United States,” Ferguson said. “It’s horrifying, looking on the inside at what we know. It’s heartbreaking. It (the Gosnell trial) sheds great light on the practices that have been hidden from the eyes of Americans for so long.”

Lee’s press secretary, Brian Phillips, said the purpose of Lee’s resolution was to draw attention to the unregulated abortion facilities that operate like Gosnell’s Philadelphia business, which reportedly brought him millions of dollars.

“The first step is to highlight these atrocities and let the American people know that they’re not rare and that it does go on in a number of places around the country,” Phillips said. “Many of the states have laws against these practices. So, we need to alert the people that the laws governing these places are not the same as the laws governing other health care facilities.

“It’s possible that people have a misconception about that (that abortion clinics are regulated like other health care facilities), so you need to educate the people as to what’s really going on in their state,” Phillips said.

Lee is also the sponsor of S886, the Pain Capable Abortion Ban for the District of Columbia. Senate Bill 886 has 32 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

The bill would make it illegal to perform abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of gestation.

Gosnell allegedly performed abortions on babies that were past 24 weeks in violation of Pennsylvania law. Phillips says Lee is aware that passing a law does not automatically ensure compliance.

However, Phillips says Lee’s bill would provide necessary regulation of abortion clinics in the District of Columbia, which he believes is the first step towards ending late-term abortions.

“You can have a law saying that abortion should not be performed past 20 or 24 weeks, but if those clinics are able to get around the law, because no one is checking up on them, and there are no regulations requiring the states to do so, then the law is effectively meaningless,” Phillips said.

“So the first thing we need to do is to educate people as to what the laws really are and that just having a law saying you can’t do an abortion after 24 weeks isn’t enough. There needs to be more regulation on these clinics,” Phillips said.

Ferguson says that even though Lee’s bill S886 will only cover Washington, it’s a solid first step.

“Congress has jurisdiction over D.C. because it’s a federal enclave, so it’s appropriate for them to regulate abortion in that instance,” Ferguson said. “Congress does have an oversight role. We know that from the testimony, Gosnell is not an outlier, and is not alone in these practices. Sadly, this is the reality of abortion in the United States.

“Congress should be commended. Just today, the House Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to all 50 states’ attorneys general and health departments seeking information on the enforcement of the various regulations,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson says it’s been medically proven that babies can feel pain at 20 weeks.

“Protection is a basic human right, and these women, too, they need to be better protected than the protection they’re getting at these abortion clinics,” Ferguson said.

Phillips said Lee would like the states to follow the 20-week ban.

“The senator very much believes this is an issue that should be handled at the state level. It is not his position at the moment to write some federal legislation that would require all 50 states to follow,” Phillips said.

“All abortion doctors talk about stopping the beating heart of the unborn child. In every abortion, there’s a beating heart. There’s a living and developing human being and we need to educate our fellow citizens about that fact,” Ferguson said.

PHILADELPHIA – As the nation awaits a verdict in the abortion murder case against Kermit Gosnell, new revelations of his 40-year career continue to surface. And what they reveal about the abortion industry isn’t a pretty picture.

Found in Gosnell’s background is the “Mother’s Day Massacre.” The event was given the name because Gosnell and his partner, Harvey Karman, bused 15 poor women from Chicago to Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic to do the abortions on Mother’s Day in 1972.

Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger told WND in an interview that Gosnell and his partner not only did the abortions before Roe v. Wade, they were using an experimental method.

“It was called the super coil, a plastic ball with razor blades on it. They would insert the coil into the woman’s uterus to induce an abortion,” Sullenger said. “I don’t think any of the women knew they were guinea pigs, that they were being used as an experiment.”

The blades were gel-coated and laid down. The device was designed so that when the woman’s body temperature melted the gel, the blades sprang up to cut the baby, thus inducing the abortion.

“Most of the women experienced complications and needed additional medical treatment,” Sullenger said. “One women ended up needing a radical hysterectomy.

“That’s why they call it the Mother’s Day Massacre,” Sullenger said.

That, she said, was the beginning of Gosnell’s long career in the abortion industry.

Most of the attention in the Gosnell trial has focused on the four babies that are the subject of the four first-degree murder charges, Babies “A,” “C,” “D” and “E.”

However, Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” apparently was the location of other gruesome activity. Among the more macabre discoveries was Gosnell’s collection of baby body parts and how they were kept.

Philadelphia Medical Examiner Dr. Sam Gulino told a Washington Post reporter that he had to deal with frozen baby body parts.

“It was really an unprecedented situation. It was the first time I had to deal with fetal remains that had been frozen. All I could do was allow the remains to thaw so that I could examine them,” Gulino told the paper.

Altogether, Gulino told the Post, he had received all or part of 47 fetuses, most of them aborted well into the second trimester. At least a couple, he determined, likely would have been viable outside the mother’s womb.

Kermit Gosnell

That’s just the beginning of the list of bizarre discoveries.

The Blaze compiled a list of abuses Gosnell and his staff are alleged to have committed:

1. Gosnell allegedly treated his minority clients with much less respect than his white patients. Considering that he was named, according to the AP, in more than 40 malpractice suits, the clinic head would purportedly perform abortions for Caucasian women in cleaner locations (he assumed whites were more likely to complain about him).
2. In addition to the murderous allegations being waged against Gosnell, eight former employees of the clinic have pleaded guilty (some to third-degree murder) and have spoken in great lengths about the terrifying conditions at the clinic.
3. A 15-year-old girl allegedly helped facilitate abortions – including on potentially live babies – at the clinic. Ashley Baldwin, now 22, claims she worked nearly 50 hours per week. Even more shocking, she allegedly helped give women the drugs needed for the procedure – and apparently assisted throughout. Baldwin said that she saw aborted babies move on at least two occasions following abortions (in one instance, she said “the chest was moving”).
4. Gosnell purportedly used untrained and low-paid staff to conduct nearly 1,000 abortions each year. The charge for a procedure in the horrific conditions mentioned? Between $350 and several thousand, depending on how far along the pregnancy was. Prosecutors believe he made millions from the practice. Authorities claim the clinic brought in about $15,000 per day.
5. Speaking of “untrained,” prosecutors claim, according to the Gospel Coalition, that Gosnell is not certified to work in either gynecology or obstetrics.
6. In the grand jury report, the clinic was said to smell of animal urine and blood stains were on blankets and furniture inside of the office. Not surprisingly, sterilized instruments were unheard of inside the establishment. And somehow the state had failed to inspect – or even visit – the clinic since 1993.
7. In March, Adrienne Moton, a medical assistant at the clinic, provided sickening details about her alleged actions at the clinic, claiming that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies; she said that another worker – and Gosnell himself – did the same. But that’s not the worst part. Moton also claimed that she once killed a baby after it was delivered in a toilet by cutting its neck with scissors. Moton plead guilty and has been in prison since 2011.
8. Another former employee, Sherry West, shared yet another horrifying story. She claims that she was once called to the back room at the clinic, where aborted babies’ bodies were apparently kept on a shelf. Once there, West heard a live baby among the bodies cry out. The screaming child “really freaked” her out, she told the court. “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” she said, noting that she previously referred to the babies as “specimens,” because it was easier to mentally handle what was going on at the clinic.
9. Then theres Robyn Reid’s story. She was only an 87-pound teen when she went to the clinic in 1998. Accompanied by her grandmother, she was looking for an abortion. But once she made it to the office, Reid changed her mind. But Salem-News.com writes that the doctor allegedly forced an abortion on her. “Gosnell ripped off her clothes and restrained the girl. When she regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt’s home, she discovered that an abortion had been performed against her will,” the website reports.

Sketch of courtroom drama by Operation Rescue.

The jury is also deliberating on a third-degree murder charge for the death of 41-year-old Bhutanese immigrant Karnamaya Mongar.

In his closing arguments, Prosecutor Ed Cameron reminded the jury of the woman’s past.

“She survived 20-years in a refugee camp after fleeing her country (Bhutan). She was privileged to come to the land of the free. She found a new life here, but that came to an end when she met Dr. Gosnell,” Cameron said.

“The defense says she died of a respiratory infection, but we have testimony that says she was very healthy. She died because she kept getting more drugs,” Cameron said. “We had a toxicologist testify that the levels of the drug meperidine (Demarol) exceeded safe levels. In his view the drugs killed her.”

Crime Library reported that University of Pittsburgh Medical School Anesthesiology Department Chairman Dr. Andrew Herlich testified that in Mongar’s case, drug doses were “outrageous.”

“Mr. Herlich opined that if average-sized adults, with no particular sensitivities to the drugs, were given two custom doses within four hours, most would stop breathing,” Crime Library reported.

Further evidence that Mongar was murdered came from the autopsy, LifeNews.com reported in March.

“Assistant Medical Examiner Gary Collins confirmed that the woman, 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar … died from the abortion due to Gosnell and his staff’s medical incompetence in terms of administering a proper amount of anesthesia rather than her dying of some other cause.”

However, Mongar wasn’t the only Gosnell patients to die as the result of a botched abortion.

LifeNews.com reported in April the death of Semika Shirelle Shaw.

Filthy Gosnell waiting room, recorded by LifeNews.com.

“Semika Shirelle Shaw was killed in March, 2000; two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus during an abortion. She developed sepsis and died, leaving two children motherless. A lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount two years later.

“Marie Smith is lucky to be alive after having had a botched abortion by Gosnell in 1999. She developed a high fever and slipped into unconsciousness a week after her abortion. She was rushed to the hospital where the source of her condition was confirmed,” the report said.

Said Smith: “They showed me X-rays and said he [Gosnell] left an arm and a leg inside me. I almost died. I thought he knew what he was doing, but I guess I was wrong.”

Gosnell has been named in over 40 lawsuits in the past 20 years.

One was filed by Dana Haynes, who had an abortion by Gosnell in November 2006. Haynes alleges that Gosnell lacerated her uterus, cervix and her small bowel during the abortion, LifeNews.com reported.

Trial testimony also focused on clinic staff and their lack of qualifications to perform the duties Gosnell assigned. Prosecution witness Kareema Cross, who worked at the clinic from 2005 through 2009, said she went to school to become a medical assistant and that she was not certified to give medication.

Cross testified: “No, I didn’t learn how to give medication. I was never certified to give medication.”

The lack of training and certification is reported to have been one of the major causes of problems at Gosnell’s clinic. As a result of the lack of training and experience, Cross testified that patients were frequently overmedicated.

“Most of the staff gave medication, but we weren’t certified. We would give the medication and frequently the patients complained about their arms swelling from too much medication,” Cross testified.

Some of the clinic staff left their jobs because of fears caused by medication errors. LifeNews.com reported that clinic worker Latosha Lewis said that she left the clinic because she overdosed a patient.

“She stopped doing so in 2007 because she overdosed a woman and was worried about whether she would ever come out of anesthesia. She also said she stopped administering Cytotec, a drug that caused powerful and often unpredictable contractions around the same time,” LifeNews said.

It said Lewis also testified that the equipment was outdated and that Gosnell often reused disposable medical instruments.

“Lewis indicated that Gosnell’s equipment was outdated and never inspected, and that he often reused disposable curettes, which is the sharp-ended tube that enters the womb in abortion procedures and applies suction for the removal of the pre-born baby and other tissues and fluids,” LifeNews said.

Cross testified she was also not certified to do ultrasounds. However, Cross said her lack of experience and training didn’t stop Gosnell from giving her that job as well.

“I wasn’t trained on how to do ultrasounds. At the clinic, Dr. Gosnell trained me on how to use the ultrasound device, for about ten minutes. Then he turned me loose to do them,” Cross testified.

Cross testified that she couldn’t give the exact number of ultrasounds she performed.

WND reported that trial testimony frequently revealed how often Gosnell was absent from the clinic, especially during the late-term abortions.

“We did a lot of second trimester abortions. I can’t say exactly how many. He was almost never there during a second trimester abortion,” Cross testified.

The issue of medication was again raised during the portion of the testimony on second trimester abortions.

Cross said workers would simply give medications based on a chart hanging on the wall.

“There was no monitoring equipment to know how much medication [was] giving intravenously. The medication we would give was Lorazepam,” Cross said.

Lorazepam is classified by the National Institutes of Health as an anti-anxiety drug.

“There was no monitoring equipment in the room. There were no monitors, no blood pressure monitors,” Cross said. “We had a defibrillator but I don’t know that we ever used it.”

Throughout the trial, questions were raised concerning how many people and organizations knew about Gosnell’s operation.

In February 2010, Pennsylvania’s Planned Parenthood CEO Dayle Steinberg told Philadelphia’s WHYY that she wasn’t aware of the clinic’s conditions.

“We do anticipate that women who might have scheduled appointments for abortion procedures at the Women’s Medical Society will be calling Planned Parenthood,” Steinberg said during the WHYY interview.

WHYY reported Steinberg confirmed knowing Gosnell had provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, that she hadn’t heard of problems.

Baby Boy B, image at Operation Rescue.

However, after Gosnell’s clinic was raided, Steinberg’s story changed. Phllly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY website reported Steinberg saying, “The Gosnell trial has shifted the focus off the high-quality services we provide. These are criminal, horrendous . . . acts and should be appropriately punished.”

Revelations about the clinic condition also prompted Steinberg to admit that staff at her clinics were frequently treated to Gosnell clinic horror stories. Steinberg told Philly.com, “We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health.”

WND also reported that Dr. Martln Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, believes that the prosecution did its duty.

King believes that Gosnell should be found guilty because of his recklessness in dealing with the patients.

“The prosecution has demonstrated that there was always consciously a disregard for the women and the babies,” King said. “The prosecution has shown that there are at least seven babies who died as a result.

“I believe there were many more who were injured, harmed, and killed by Dr. Gosnell and his staff’s conscious disregard of all the women and those babies.”

Prosecutor Ed Cameron clearly believes the case against Gosnell has been proven, and that reckless disregard for the patients has been shown.

WND reported that Cameron illustrated his point by contrasting how his dog was treated when he was put down, Gosnell’s treatment of his patients – mothers and babies.

“My dog got better treatment than these babies and these women,” Cameron said. “First they gave him a shot to help him sleep. Then they took him to a room, and once he was asleep, they gave him the shot so that he would not wake up.

“They treated my dog with dignity,” Cameron said. “My dog was cremated. [Gosnell] took these babies and put their parts in Lime-Aid jars.

“Those babies didn’t stand a chance,” Cameron told the jury.

In his closing statement, Cameron also said the ultimate issue is human dignity.

“Pennsylvania law requires that once a baby leaves the mother, he be treated with dignity and respect like a human being,” Cameron said. “But the question we need to ask that man sitting over at the table: Are you human? To med these women up and to cut these babies’ necks is not human.”

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, is calling the case a “watershed moment.”

“The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states,” he told LifeNews.

Clinic worker Ashley Baldwin testified about watching Massof slit the necks of babies that moved or breathed “five or 10″ times. Massof, repeating what he had been taught by Gosnell, told her that that it was standard procedure to cut the spine in all cases.

Baldwin’s testimony:

Q: These larger babies, when Dr. Steve was there, did he ever – was he ever there when any of the larger babies precipitated?

A: Yes.

Q: Babies that would move?

A: Yes.

Q: So, Dr. Steve – what would Dr. Steve do with babies that moved?

A: The same thing.

Q. The same thing. And how many time did you see Dr. Steve?

A: A lot. He told me that – don’t worry about it. They are not living. It is just a reaction.

At one point, Cross testified, staff member Lynda Williams placed a baby on the counter, and it was breathing and moving its arms when Williams pulled on them.

After playing with the baby, Williams slit its neck, Cross said.

Gosnell’s clinic isn’t the exception, Priests for Life National Director Father Frank Pavone told WND in an interview that Gosnell’s clinic is the “rule.”

“This trial simply exposes the abortion industry for what it is. Gosnell’s clinic isn’t unique. I’m afraid it’s the norm,” Pavone said.

King would agree.

“So because Dr. Gosnell is the most visible tip of the iceberg today – he’s the rule not the exception to the rule. He’s visible evidence of the rule – that abortion kills babies, sometimes kills women, it hurts human beings,” King said.

Pavone believes that there’s more at stake than the fate of Gosnell. Abortion itself is on trial.

“When we hear the things that are coming out of the testimony, nothing is shocking us because we’ve heard it all before,” Pavone said. “The fact that Roe v. Wade made abortion legal did not make it safe. We see all sorts of corruption in unregulated facilities. Sadly this is only more of the same.”

Newsbusters noted that the local tax-funded National Public Radio station WHYY described Gosnell as “a physician who had worked in our community for 30 years, cared for women in all of that time.”

But the NPR station also noted that the jury “didn’t hear from one character witness or one person who was put on the stand to say that he was a competent physician.”

Actress Patricia Heaton took to Twitter to give her opinion: “Gosnell is just the less sanitary version of what goes on every day … the cheapening of human life. Lord have mercy.”

WND also reported earlier that the discoveries at Gosnell’s clinic were startling. A partial list reported by WND includes:

• Rusty and filthy abortion equipment has been brought into the courtroom to document unsanitary conditions.
• Medical records appear to have blood and other stains on them.
• Gosnell’s staff acted as though they were doctors, even though some had little or no medical training.
• Medications, including anesthetics, found in the office had expired years earlier.
• A defense attorney blamed a woman, Bhutan immigrant Karnamaya Mongar, for her own death, since she left several blanks on her medical form. Prosecutors said she spoke little English and likely was unaware she needed to provide information.
• Patients appeared to repeatedly get overdoses of drugs for their abortion procedures, including Mongar.
• Photographs of the bodies of babies, revealed gaping wounds in the back of their necks. According to testimony, Gosnell or staff members routinely snipped their spinal cords to make sure they were dead. Operation Rescue said: “The babies were all intact and had the appearance of being partially mummified or dried. The brownish-black skin had shrunk as it dried, revealing the upper spinal column that authorities say was pierced with scissors in order to snip the spinal cords of newborn babies born alive during abortions by Gosnell.”
• Photographs were introduced of babies’ feet, or even whole legs, Gosnell had preserved in jars.

Prolife activist Lila Rose, whose LiveAction.org has released undercover videos revealing how abortion businesses say they would not help an infant born alive during an abortion, said the government needs to investigate the procedures.

“We believe in human rights for everyone – human rights for the child in the womb, the child outside the womb, and true protection and medical care for women. Not the brutality that goes on during these procedures,” she said during a rally Wednesday in Washington.

Congress also is beginning to consider further restrictions on abortions in the District of Columbia as a result of the controversy over the born-alive babies.

And Pavone wrote in the Washington Times that the procedure of abortion not only kills the unborn, but also the abortionist.

Pavone wrote:

“David Brewer, a former abortionist, tells his story: ‘I can remember that day watching the first abortion . I saw a little tiny head, and I saw a piece of a leg, and I saw a tiny hand, and I saw an arm. You know, it was like somebody put a hot poker into me . I had a conscience and that hurt. That was a very hard experience for me to go through, emotionally. So I did what a lot of us do throughout our life, we don’t do anything. I didn’t talk with anybody about it. and do you know what happened? I got to see another abortion. You know what? That one hurt, too. But I kept seeing abortions, and it hurt a little bit less every time I saw one. Do you know what happened next? I got to sit down and do one . The first one that I did was kind of hard. It was like hurting again like a hot poker. But after a while, it got to where it didn’t hurt’ (Testimony at ‘Meet the Abortion Providers’ conference in Chicago).

“So yes, I am not at all surprised that Dr. Gosnell is cool, calm and collected, smiling even as he listens to those accusing him of murder. Abortion destroys the abortionists themselves.”

The case was handed to the jury by Judge Jeffrey Minehart who charged the panel on the points of law members are to consider during their deliberations.

Minehart told jurors to focus on how the testimony relates to Pennsylvania’s 24-week abortion statute, the 24-hour waiting period statute and the personhood statutes.

They are also to disregard any information that was not entered into evidence during the trial.

Lawyers and legal analysts present estimate that the deliberations could be lengthy, noting that the seven-woman, five-man jury has to work through a 30-page verdict sheet.

That sheet includes four first-degree murder charges, one third-degree murder charge, and 24 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s 24-week abortion law.

Even as the panel begins the task of determining Gosnell’s guilt, more details of Gosnell’s lengthy career as an abortion practitioner keep coming to light.

Journalist Kirsten Powers wrote for USA Today that 20-year-old Desiree Hawkins was prepared to testify against Gosnell as a defense rebuttal witness.

Hawkins was willing to come forward when she discovered that one of the pairs of feet Gosnell kept as a souvenir was the pair of feet from her 23-week old baby.

Powers writes that Gosnell laughed at Hawkins during the abortion.

“She also would have avoided the trauma visited upon her by Gosnell. Hawkins described the licensed medical professional as laughing at her during the procedure as she cried and begged him to stop because of the pain,” Powers wrote.

Hawkins told Powers that Gosnell said, “Stop being a baby,” to her when she cried because of the pain during the abortion.

It’s also been reported that Pennsylvania’s Planned Parenthood CEO may have been misleading about Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society clinic.

In February 2010 Dayle Steinberg told WHYY News, “We do anticipate that women who might have scheduled appointments for abortion procedures at the Women’s Medical Society will be calling Planned Parenthood.”

“Steinberg says she knows that Gosnell has provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, but says she hadn’t heard of any problems at clinic until the allegations surfaced in recent days,” WHYY said, quoting Steinberg.

Later, Phllly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY website reported Steinberg saying, “The Gosnell trial has shifted the focus off the high-quality services we provide. These are criminal, horrendous . . . acts and should be appropriately punished.”

Steinberg admitted that while Gosnell’s clinic was in operation, women would come to Planned Parenthood and describe the dirty conditions at Gosnell’s clinic.

“We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health,” Steinberg said.

In his closing remarks, Prosecutor Ed Cameron reminded the jury that even former unlicensed clinic doctor Steve Massof told of Gosnell’s increasingly lax attitude.

Cameron repeated Massof’s testimony, “Over time, the place was going down hill. Dr. Gosnell would talk on his Blue Tooth and eat cereal while doing the procedures.”

Cameron added that custodian Jim Johnson testified about the procedures.

Johnson said. “The toilets were always stopping up from baby parts,” according to Cameron.

Cameron also covered clinic patient Lisa Dungee’s testimony regarding Gosnell staff members’ violations of the 24-hour waiting period law.

“Dungee never got a 24-hour waiting period. She said she signed the form and Dr. O’Neill (Gosnell’s co-defendant) gave her a pill the first visit,” Cameron said.

“The files were wrong. She said that no one ever called her for a follow-up. After she left the clinic, Lisa Dungee never got a follow-up call or care,” Cameron said.

The prosecution brought in medical experts to testify regarding clinic procedures.

OB/GYN specialist Dr. Karen Fessillin testified about Gosnell’s misuse of ultrasounds and concerning how frequently ultrasound equipment malfunctioned.

Quoting from Fessillin’s testimony, Cameron said, “The ultrasound equipment didn’t work.”

“You never do the procedure if there is a heartbeat. They [did] the procedures when there were heartbeats. Many of the women were in labor because Gosnell would induce labor,” Cameron said, quoting from Fessillin’s testimony.

“Pennsylvania law requires that once a baby leaves the mother, he be treated with dignity and respect like a human being,” Cameron said today. “But the question we need to ask that man sitting over at the table: Are you human? To med these women up and to cut these babies’ necks is not human.”

Cameron emphasized the point by recalling when he had to have his dog put to sleep.

“My dog got better treatment than these babies and these women,” Cameron said. “First they gave him a shot to help him sleep. Then they took him to a room, and once he was asleep, they gave him the shot so that he would not wake up.

“They treated my dog with dignity,” Cameron said. “My dog was cremated. [Gosnell] took these babies and put their parts in Lime-Aid jars.

“Those babies didn’t stand a chance,” Cameron told the jury. “Show courage and tell Dr. Gosnell that what he did was wrong.”

He said the specifics of the charges and the facts in evidence aren’t complicated.

“You decide a case by what happened here. You decide a case based on the law that applies to the case, not based on what happened somewhere else,” he said.

Even the legality of abortion isn’t complicated, he said.

“Outside the mother, all things change. It has to be treated as such. If you hasten the death, that is murder. The commonwealth (Pennsylvania) places a high value on human life,” he said.

He said the basics include state laws regarding human life, a ban on abortion until after a 24-hour waiting period and a ban on abortion after 24 weeks.

He said the evidence shows there were violations.

“Every single one of these is after 24 weeks. And many of these abortions were done on the same day the consent form was signed. They came in, signed the form and were given the abortion medication,” he said.

“This is crucial, because several of our witnesses in the case are bearing the pain of the abortion. They feel guilty because in abortion, there are no do-overs. Once the abortion is done, it’s done.”

Cameron apologized to the court for referring to one baby in question as the toilet baby, the baby former clinic worker Kareema Cross testified she saw moving.

“I saw the baby in the toilet. It moved. It breathed. It had a head as big as a pancake,” Cross testified.

Cameron also summarized other witnesses’ statements.

Defense attorney Jack McMahon said in his closing argument that the abortion industry is not on trial.

“This case is not about abortion. This is not a referendum on abortion,” he said.

However, Priests for Life national director Father Frank Pavone says that’s wrong.

“When we hear the things that are in the grand jury report, that are coming out in the testimony, sadly nothing is shocking us because we’ve heard it all before,” Pavone said. “It’s like a tune that’s been played for decades.

“I’ve been saying that this is not the exception, this (the details of the Gosnell case) is the norm. I wrote a piece for the ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ that they published recently that shows, and I quoted Peter Singer, the controversial ethicist.” Pavone said. “He said birth cannot be so significant of a moral dividing line. In other words, if you can kill the baby before birth, it’s the same baby after birth.

“So the question Singer said is that there are only two consistent positions. There’s ‘A,’ oppose abortion, or ‘B’ allow infanticide. Now when Roe v. Wade says the unborn is not a person, why can’t you flush it down the toilet? If it’s just medical waste, then like all these abortion clinics, they just throw the babies in the trash,” Pavone said.

“This case is all a logical extension of what we’ve had ever since Roe v. Wade came down,” Pavone said.

Pavone said that the trial also shows that the abortion industry has not fulfilled its promise to make abortion “safe.”

“Those of us who have been looking closely at this for decades, the fact that making abortion legal has not made it safe,” Pavone said. “Roe v. Wade said abortion is legal and it should be performed in ways that maximize the safety of the woman.

“But in fact, the abortion industry has not implemented that part of Roe v. Wade. So we see all kinds of corruption and unregulated facilities. Sadly, this (case) is more of the same,” Pavone said.

“The encouraging part of this is that it’s coming out and the story is being told. And aside from what happens to these two defendants, the bigger question is what is America learning about abortion,” Pavone said. “Has making it legal made it safe? Can it ever be made safe, or are we dealing with a deeper problem in the corruption of those who do abortions?” Pavone said.

As WND reported, McMahon insisted the evidence shows that “not one, not one of those babies were born alive.”

He acknowledged abortion is bloody and horrible, but he argued that fact doesn’t make his client guilty.

“When you see fetuses with a hole cut in them, that affects you. If it didn’t, something would be wrong with you. But that’s what abortion is.

“Abortion is bloody; it’s real. However, you have to decide if Dr. Kermit Gosnell is guilty of murder. You have to remember that he is presumed innocent,” McMahon said.

The lawyer emphasized the principle of reasonable doubt, calling it a “powerful concept.”

“Reason, mind, if it makes no sense, there is reasonable doubt. The question is, did the evidence push the line beyond the line of reasonable doubt?”

He accused the prosecution of twisting information.

“They want to manipulate you. They are guilty of an irresponsible use of power and rhetoric,” he said. “Look at what they’ve done. They brought this chair, this furniture out of storage and put it in here for the court to see. They brought the oldest ones, not the newer ones.

“Then they showed us photos of cats, bloody instruments, and bloody sheets. They didn’t show you the clean ones. Why? Because they wanted to manipulate you.”

McMahon said the representations in the case of babies crying, breathing or moving were wrong.

“Not one of those babies were born alive. One jerk of an arm does not mean that there is movement,” he said.

Newsbusters noted that the local tax-funded National Public Radio station WHYY described Gosnell as “a physician who had worked in our community for 30 years, cared for women in all of that time.”

But the NPR station also pointed out that the jury “didn’t hear from one character witness or one person who was put on the stand to say that he was a competent physician.”

Actress Patricia Heaton took to Twitter to give her opinion: “Gosnell is just the less sanitary version of what goes on every day … the cheapening of human life. Lord have mercy.”

Defense lawyer Jack McMahon spent hours today hammering his points to the jury in closing arguments. The jury could get the case as early as tomorrow.

“These are the facts. This is the evidence that not one, not one of those babies were born alive,” McMahon shouted.

He acknowledged abortion is bloody and horrible, but he argued that fact doesn’t make his client guilty.

“When you see fetuses with a hole cut in them, that affects you. If it didn’t, something would be wrong with you. But that’s what abortion is.

“Abortion is bloody; it’s real. However, you have to decide if Dr. Kermit Gosnell is guilty of murder. You have to remember that he is presumed innocent,” McMahon said.

The lawyer emphasized the principle of reasonable doubt, calling it a “powerful concept.”

“Reason, mind, if it makes no sense, there is reasonable doubt. The question is, did the evidence push the line beyond the line of reasonable doubt?”

McMahon said the case really isn’t about abortion.

“That’s not the issue,” McMahon said. “The issue is whether or not Dr. Kermit Baron Gosnell is a murderer.

“The presumption of innocence has been stomped on in this case like no other case in the history of American jurisprudence. There has been the most terrible rush to judgment in this case like never before,” McMahon said. “That’s not right. That’s not fair, and the same thing could happen to us all.”

He accused the prosecution of twisting information.

“They want to manipulate you. They are guilty of an irresponsible use of power and rhetoric,” he said. “Look at what they’ve done. They brought this chair, this furniture out of storage and put it in here for the court to see. They brought the oldest ones, not the newer ones.

“Then they showed us photos of cats, bloody instruments, and bloody sheets. They didn’t show you the clean ones. Why? Because they wanted to manipulate you.”

McMahon said the representations in the case of babies crying, breathing or moving were wrong.

“Not one of those babies were born alive. One jerk of an arm does not mean that there is movement,” he said.

Prosecution witness Kareema Cross had testified that she saw a baby born alive.

“She delivered and the baby came out big, about 12-16 inches. He came out, and Dr. Gosnell put him in a box, a plastic box. But the baby was so big his arms and legs hung out of the box,” Cross said.

“Gosnell took the box from the room. After this, the baby pulled his arms together. Dr. Gosnell took pictures, then he snapped the baby’s neck,” she said.

She added, “Dr. Gosnell said that this baby was so big he could have walked me to the bus stop.”

A grand jury report said that Baby “C” was born while Gosnell was not at the clinic. Witnesses say the child lived for more than 20 minutes after the botched abortion.

The report also said that after Dr. Steve Massof left the clinic, clinic worker Lynda Williams took over the task of slitting the babies’ necks after they were born.

Priests for Life National Director Father Frank Pavone was in the courtroom during the closing arguments. He told WND that conditions at Gosnell’s clinic isn’t an anomaly.

“This trial simply exposes the abortion industry for what it is. Gosnell’s clinic isn’t unique. I’m afraid it’s the norm,” Pavone said.

Pavone believes it is abortion itself that is on trial.

“When we hear the things that are coming out of the testimony, nothing is shocking us because we’ve heard it all before,” Pavone said. “The fact that Roe v. Wade made abortion legal did not make it safe. We see all sorts of corruption in unregulated facilities. Sadly this is only more of the same.”

Newsbusters noted that the local tax-funded National Public Radio station WHYY described Gosnell as “a physician who had worked in our community for 30 years, cared for women in all of that time.”

But the NPR station also noted that the jury “didn’t hear from one character witness or one person who was put on the stand to say that he was a competent physician.”

Actress Patricia Heaton took to Twitter to give her opinion: “Gosnell is just the less sanitary version of what goes on every day … the cheapening of human life. Lord have mercy.”

The defense surprised a packed courtroom last Wednesday by resting the defense’s case without calling a single witness in abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell’s defense.

McMahon told the reporters who surrounded him at the end of the trial phase, “It is what it is. We didn’t call any witnesses. We couldn’t call any witnesses.”

McMahon added, “We did it for strategic reasons.”

The judge’s gag order on the trial prevented McMahon from saying what those “strategic reasons” may be.

WND reported last Wednesday that trial judge Jeffrey Minehart admitted that he had made a mistake by dismissing the murder charge over Baby “C” and reinstated the charge.

Baby “C” is the baby that clinic staff members testified was too big for the “shoebox” he was put into and who clinic workers all say was seen breathing for 20 minutes before he died.

Baby “C” was the subject of debate last Tuesday during the motion-to-dismiss phase.

The defense argued that all charges should be dropped, saying, “It’s ridiculous to say a baby is alive just because you see it move.”

But in testimony the previous week, clinic staff member Kareema Cross told the court that she saw Baby “C” move and breathe. Voluntary movement and respirations are two of the criteria Pennsylvania’s abortion law requires for evidence that a baby is born alive.

Cross testified that she believed the baby was unusually large.

“She delivered, and the baby came out big, about 12-16 inches. He came out, and Dr. Gosnell put him in a box, a plastic box. But the baby was so big his arms and legs hung out of the box,” Cross said. “Dr. Gosnell took the box from the room. After this, the baby pulled his arms together.

“Dr. Gosnell took pictures, then he snapped the baby’s neck,” Cross said. “Dr. Gosnell said that this baby was so big he could have walked me to the bus stop.”

During cross examination by Gosnell’s defense attorney, Cross remained firm in her testimony about Baby “C.”

In a review of the photographs Cross took, McMahon asked to see the photo of Baby “C.” The photo showed a baby too large to fit into the plastic box.

As WND reported, during the course of the Gosnell trial, “startling” details about the sanitation and conditions at the clinic were discovered in testimony.

The list includes:

• Rusty and filthy abortion equipment has been brought into the courtroom to document unsanitary conditions;
• Medical records appear to have blood and other stains on them;
• Gosnell’s staff acted as though they were doctors, even though some had little or no medical training;
• Medications, including anesthetics, found in the office had expired years earlier;
• A defense attorney blamed the woman, Bhutan immigrant Karnamaya Mongar, for her own death, since she left several blanks on her medical form. Prosecutors said she spoke little English and likely was unaware she needed to provide information;
• Patients appeared to repeatedly get overdoses of drugs for their abortion procedures, including Mongar;
• Photographs of the bodies of babies, revealed gaping wounds in the back of their necks. According to testimony, Gosnell or staff members routinely snipped their spinal cords to make sure they were dead. Operation Rescue said: “The babies were all intact and had the appearance of being partially mummified or dried. The brownish-black skin had shrunk as it dried, revealing the upper spinal column that authorities say was pierced with scissors in order to snip the spinal cords of newborn babies born alive during abortions by Gosnell”;
• Photographs were introduced of babies’ feet, or even whole legs, Gosnell had preserved in jars.

Barring any new motions, the jury is expected to get the case on Tuesday.

This case goes to the jury at the same time that Life News is reporting an undercover video at a Bronx abortion clinic reveals a worker telling a woman whose baby was born in a botched abortion to flush the remains down the toilet.

The pro-life group Live Action released the video on its website. Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose says Gosnell is not an anomaly.

“Dr. Kermit Gosnell is not an aberration,” Rose said in the Life News report. “The gruesome and brutal practices exposed in Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’ are business as usual for the abortion industry in America. Nationwide, it’s just another day at the office.”

In fact, ICC Middle East analyst Aidan Clay says Christians appear poised to lose no matter who wins in the civil war between jihadist rebels and an Islamic power structure belonging to President Bashar al-Assad.

Most recently, officials have confirmed that two Orthodox archbishops have been kidnapped, allegedly by Syrian rebels.

They are Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo Boulos Yazjic and Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo Yohanna Ibrahim. They reportedly were kidnapped while on a humanitarian mission to Aleppo.

Clay said the ICC is deeply concerned about their safety.

“Though people from every political, ethnic, and religious background are suffering and targeted in Syria’s civil war, Christians have found themselves in a very unique and frightening situation, having widely chosen not to take up arms or to openly support either the rebels or the regime,” Clay said.

“While many Christians have publicly denounced the brutality of President Assad and by no means support the regime, most Christians see little hope in an alternative government which, they fear, will be led by Islamists who will hinder or outright abolish the religious freedoms long experienced by Christian in Syria,” Clay said.

He said the latest kidnappings refresh fears for people.

“While this is not the first time church officials have been kidnapped, Archbishops Boulos Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim are the most senior church leaders abducted in Syria’s civil war to date,” Clay said.

Clay says this is not the first kidnapping carried out by the Syrian rebels.

“We remember the murder of Fadi Jamil Haddad, a Greek Orthodox priest, who had been killed outside of Damascus in September after trying to secure the release of a kidnapped victim,” Clay said.

“Armenian priest Michel Kayyal and Greek Orthodox priest Maher Mahfouz were also kidnapped by armed rebels in February,” Clay said. “Moreover, there have been several prominent Muslim clerics who have been abducted and killed in the conflict.”

Clay observes that there is a growing similarity between the civil war in Syria and the ongoing strife in Iraq.

“Syria’s war is increasingly mimicking the war in Iraq where some 200 Christians were kidnapped for ransom between 2003 and 2012, according to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization,” Clay said.

Clay adds that failure to pay ransom has a heavy price.

“If the family is unable to pay ransom, the Christian is often killed,” Clay said.

A Syrian-born American who identifies himself only as “Zak” to protect relatives still living in Syria says although they’re in danger, his family would rather stay in Syria than emigrate to the U.S.

Zak said there are emotional and business roots that prevent Syrian Christians from leaving, including his family.

“Those that have some land property when they leave, they will never see it. Land that’s been in a family for generations lost,” he said.

In response to the kidnappings, a Russian Orthodox archbishop says that the state of the Christians in Syria rises to the level of a “humanitarian crisis.”

In a statement for the Lebanese television network MTV, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk is asking the Syrian government to intervene.

“We call on the Syrian authorities to do everything possible so that the kidnapped bishops are returned,” Hilarion said.

Clay said with the war dragging out, Syria’s Christian community will eventually follow in the footsteps of other Middle Eastern Christian enclaves.

“Many fear that if the war continues without resolution, Syrian Christians will follow the path of other ancient Christian communities throughout the Middle East such as Iraq where more than half the Christian population has fled and some 900 Christians have been killed following the outbreak of war in 2003,” Clay said.

“Syria appears to be following the same path. Already, most of the Christian community has reportedly fled Homs following the city’s takeover by rebel forces. ICC stands hand-in-hand with Christians in Syria and prays for the immediate release and safekeeping of the two bishops,” Clay said.

Christians have been the regular targets of the rebels since the beginning of the civil war.

WND reported in December that some analysts believe the civil war is a cover for killing Christians.

Although the rebels have denied involvement in the attacks on Christian neighborhoods, Open Doors believes the attacks are aimed at Christians, rather than supporters of Assad’s government.

Zak adds that the Syrian Christian community holds the U. S. partly responsible for the Syrian situation.

“The opinions of people there I speak to are typically directed towards us. For whatever the issue or our involvement, it’s always us at the bottom or center of it,” Zak said. “How can America do this? Why do they let this happen? Why are they sending them (the rebels) money and weapons?”