Judge closes down Alabama abortion which was operating without a license

A judge ruled today that Diane Derzis' abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, is operating in violation of state law and must close. She lost her clinic license after numerous health code violations, but continued to provide abortions anyway. Derzis is the owner of the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, which sent a patient to the hospital yesterday.

The ruling came down to two things: a telephone number and the abortion doctor's math.

 Norman testified that he performed 14 or less abortions on one day at the clinic "every other week."

State law says a license is required if you perform 30 or more abortions in any two months of a calendar year.

"For two months of every year, according to Dr. Norman's testimony, the said facility is open three days during the month," Boohaker wrote.

"The court can only conclude that Dr. Norman's reckoning that he performs less than 30 abortion procedures per month is based upon a mistaken belief that bi-weekly is the same as semi-monthly, and for 10 months of the year that reckoning is clearly correct. However, for two months every year this clearly is not the case."

The judge also ruled that a phone number connecting callers to an abortion referral service is a way that the clinic "holds itself out" to the public as an abortion provider, which is another part of the regulation requiring a license.

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