Trial of Kermit Gosnell, Abortion Doctor, Draws to a Close PHILADELPHIA - They are known as Baby Boy A, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E, all of whom prosecutors call murdered children and the defense calls aborted fetuses - the very difference in language encapsulating why anti-abortion advocates are so passionate about drawing attention to the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which wrapped up here on Monday with summations by both sides. In five weeks of testimony, jurors were told that Dr. Gosnell, 72, had performed late-term abortions by injecting a drug to stop the heart of the fetus, but that when one jerked an arm, cried or drew breath outside the womb, its spinal cord was cut with surgical scissors. To anti-abortion leaders, the accounts have the power to break through decades of hardened positions in the abortion wars, not just because of the graphic details but because they raise the philosophical issue of why an abortion procedure performed in utero is legal, but a similar act a few minutes later, outside the womb, is considered homicide. The distinction "is maybe a 15-minute or half-hour time frame and 10 inches of physical space," said Michael Geer, the president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, an anti-abortion group. I think it's going to resurrect a debate about the humanity of the unborn child. Abortion rights groups have a very different view. They say that Dr. Gosnell was a rogue practitioner, and that if abortion is further restricted, more women will be driven to clinics like his, which prosecutors called a "house of horrors." Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal organization in Washington, said, "This case in the end is going to be viewed as monumental, no matter what the verdict is." Last week, Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart of the Court of Common Pleas threw out three of seven first-degree murder charges against Dr. Gosnell. The doctor's defense lawyer, Jack J. McMahon, argued Monday that none of the remaining four cases had resulted in live births. Because the women were given injections of the drug digoxin, which causes "fetal demise," Mr. McMahon argued, any postdelivery movements were involuntary spasms. "Every single piece of scientific evidence in this case has shown stillbirth," he said. But Edward Cameron, an assistant district attorney, countered that testimony showed Dr. Gosnell did not always use digoxin and that it did not always work as intended. He quoted a former clinic worker with medical school training but no doctor's license who testified that the drug "wasn't giving the desired effect, the heart was always beating." The prosecutor cited Pennsylvania law stating that if a baby delivered during an abortion "shows any sign of life, it's considered alive - a heartbeat, breathing, a cry, movement." The jury will now make that determination in the cases, including that of Baby Boy A, whom clinic workers testified Dr. Gosnell joked was big enough "to walk me home." Baby D, a clinic worker testified, was delivered into a toilet by a woman waiting for Dr. Gosnell and it appeared to make swimming motions before one of the doctor's assistants pulled it out and cut its neck. Two workers said they heard Baby E crying before Dr. Gosnell cut its spine with scissors. The prosecutor quoted a worker: "It made noises, a whine like my baby." Mr. McMahon also cited the trial testimony, in which the clinic worker acknowledged she did not know for sure if Baby E was born alive. Eight workers from the clinic, the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case, including Dr. Gosnell's wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions. If convicted, Dr. Gosnell could face the death penalty. The case became a cause célèbre when anti-abortion activists complained that the mainstream news media were ignoring it for ideological reasons. It has since been widely covered, and every seat in the courtroom was taken on Monday.