A group of pro-life activists is calling on the Alabama Department of Health to take decisive action regarding an unlicensed abortion business in Birmingham that was caught this year offering abortions in violation of a consent decree that closed it down in 2012.
In a letter to the Alabama Department of Public Health, officials with Life Legal Defense Foundation asked for the state to step in and revoke that medical license of abortionist Bruce E. Norman and withdraw privileges for “New Woman, All Women” owner, Diane Derzis, to have and run any business in the state.
The organization told the health regulators that Norman still is performing abortions at the facility “in spite of a health department closure of the site.”
It was in March 2012 at the state agency obtained a consent decree and shut down the facility because of a variety of code violations.
A spokeswoman for the Life Legal Defense Foundation said the situation wasn’t complicated: The business had been shut down a year ago because of 76 health code violations, and it has resumed operations without permission.
The letter to Brian Hale, deputy general counsel at the state agency, was from Allison K. Aranda, senior staff counsel at Life Legal Defense.
She outlined the facts that Norman is under a ban preventing him from performing any abortions at the Birmingham business, but was caught working for the unlicensed facility. That means that the state should revoke his medical license and permanently prohibit him from providing any medical services, she said.
Further, she explained, owner Derzis was banned from operating the facility, but was caught running it, and as such as ignored her obligations under the agreement from 2012. She therefore should be enjoined from operating any business in Alabama, the letter suggests.
It was through the Internet and telephone advertising that officials learned the clinic was continuing to offer abortions, “in defiance of the clinic’s forced closure last year.”
Life Legal Defense Foundation said it is asking that the Alabama Department of Public Health enforce its own rules by issuing an emergency administrative order of closure against the illegal clinic.
“What is particularly troubling in this matter is Derzis’ and Norman’s blatant disregard for the law. Derzis and Norman have scoffed at the terms of the consent agreement and persist in putting the lives of women at risk. Further, Derzis has deceived the public into thinking that New Woman All Women is a licensed abortion clinic,” Aranda explained.
In the letter to the state, Hale was told that even if some new individual became involved, the facility in Birmingham would not be allowed to employ Norman. And the letter quoted Alabama law, which states, “Evidence that a person who is a licensed health care professional is or has been operating an unlicensed hospital or knowingly is or has been an employee of an unlicensed hospital shall be grounds for license revocation by the applicable professional licensing board or boards.”
Last year’s consent agreement also specifically prohibits Derzis from operating an abortion business at the site.
“It is incumbent upon the ADPH to act promptly and justly in this situation. Such deliberate violations of the consent agreement must be stopped immediately. Paragraph 5 of the consent agreement allows and requires the ADPH to take enforcement action in the form of an emergency administrative order of closure against NWAW in the face perpetual violations of the consent agreement. We demand that ADPH pursue this remedy and seek to forcibly close the doors of the facility at once!” the letter said.
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