Abortion doctor convicted of murder gets life in prison

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- A Philadelphia abortion provider has agreed to forgo an appeal of his first-degree murder conviction and will not be sentenced to death, Philadelphia's district attorney's office said Tuesday.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was convicted Monday on three counts of murder for the killing of babies by cutting their spinal cords with scissors.

According to a statement from the office of Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, Gosnell on Tuesday "agreed to waive all of his appellate rights in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty." He was then "immediately sentenced."

A jury also found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the case of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died of an anesthetic overdose during a second-trimester abortion at Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic.

Eight people involved in Gosnell's clinic, called the Women's Medical Society, earlier pleaded guilty to various charges. Four of them pleaded guilty to murder.