Doc Disputes 'Killings' at Philly Abortion Clinic After two years under a gag order, a Philadelphia abortion provider got his chance to answer charges that he killed a female patient and seven babies as his capital murder trial began. And Kermit Gosnell's fiery defense lawyer didn't hold back on Monday, accusing the government of "a lynching" in going after their client, who is black. "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give (back) to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia," Jack McMahon told the predominantly black jury. Gosnell used outmoded drugs and unorthodox methods, forcing women to endure labor and then deliver live babies that were then killed by staff with scissors, she said. Normally, the fetus is killed in utero. Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/AP Photo The two other "doctors" on staff were allegedly medical school graduates without licenses. The woman giving anesthesia was a sixth-grade dropout who could hardly read or write, and a 15-year-old high school student helped in the surgical suite and recovery room, she said. McMahon countered that prosecutors are applying "Mayo Clinic" standards to Gosnell's inner-city office in West Philadelphia. Gosnell, he said, performed as many as 1,000 abortions in a year, and at least 16,000 over his long career, he said. She also had bronchial problems that she did not report - she did not speak English - and died of unfortunate complications, he said. As for the infant deaths, McMahon vowed to prove that none were born alive. No physical evidence exists in five of the deaths; the murder charges are instead based on staff testimony that the babies moved or cried. Investigators stumbled into the abortion case during a 2010 FBI drug raid of the clinic, as agents investigated Gosnell's high-volume distribution of painkillers. They hoped to search the premises and interview him one evening when no abortions were under way.