Pro-Life Twitter Campaign Asks Alabama to Shut Down Illegal Abortion Clinic

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 5, 2013   |   11:04AM   |   Montgomery, AL

Pro-life advocates flooded Twitter today with a campaign calling on public officials in Alabama to shut down an abortion clinic operating illegally.

Today, abortion clinic owner Diane Derzis faces a judge about the accusation she is illegally operating the New Woman All Women abortion clinic in Birmingham, shut down by the state of Alabama since 2012, but now operating illegally.

Derzis is well-known to pro-life advocates, she runs the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi and she is still operating a clinic in Birmingham doing abortions despite a previous order by the state to close.

Today, Derzis goes to trial in Jefferson County to respond to a lawsuit about her illegal operation of the New Woman All Women clinic in Birmingham and pro-lifers are taking to Twitter to pressure Alabama officials to respond using the hashtag #ShutDerzisDown.

The campaign has the backing of leading pro-life advocates.

“Neither this facility nor any other one in the nation that performs abortions should consider itself above the law,” said Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life. “Abortion supporters can’t have it both ways. If you want a procedure to be legal, then carrying it out has to be done according to the law. I know Diane Derzis, who runs this facility, and have met with her, and I appeal to her not only to abide by the law, but to get out of the abortion industry altogether.”