Two Irish filmmakers who focused on the case of US abortionist Dr Kermit Gosnell (pictured) have warned against a rush to liberalise abortion in Ireland following their research of the case.

Having made Gosnell’s infamous ‘house of horrors’ case the subject of a documentary film and book, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney admitted, in an article for The Irish Times, that their previous support for liberal abortion provision had radically changed and warned abortion campaigners in Ireland to “be careful what you wish for” as the drive continues for a repeal of the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which protects the unborn child.

The couple wrote that their “experience of the Gosnell case is that anyone who has learned more about the reality of abortion – the pulling apart of the foetus, the injecting of poison into the heart, the ‘comfort care’ – has come away with only negative feelings about the procedure. It may be a case of be careful what you wish for.”

They added that “those seeking to remove the constitutional ban on abortion believe the best way to do it is to bring it out of the shadows in the hope that when people hear the details, they will support the liberalisation of abortion in Ireland” but these campaigners needed “a rethink”.

The case of Kermit Gosnell came to light in 2011 when police, raiding his Philadelphia clinic to investigate prescription fraud, uncovered a litany of horrific abuses of pregnant women and their babies. Investigators described finding a ‘charnel house’ inside the clinic. Gosnell and his staff subsequently faced murder charges relating to babies born alive and killed and a case of manslaughter involving one woman who died during a termination. Gosnell is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.