Two Virginia landlords just filed a lawsuit against a new abortion business on their property, saying they were deceived into thinking it was a family medical practice.
Cardinal News reports landlords Chase King and Chadwick King said they “morally oppose” abortions and never would have signed the five-year lease with Bristol Women’s Health if they had known its primary work is aborting unborn babies.
Last week, the Kings filed a lawsuit against the abortion facility, owner Diane Derzis and abortionist Wesley Adams in Bristol Circuit Court, asking a judge to dissolve the lease, according to the report.
They accused the abortion workers of “willfully” hiding the true nature of their business, and said they have “suffered great financial loss and lost business opportunity; been forced to suffer in its reputation and endure humiliation within their business and social circles; [and] been required to endure great mental anguish,” according to the lawsuit.
The abortion workers told the Kings through their real estate broker that they planned to open a “medical clinic” focused on “general family practice,” the lawsuit states. On its website, however, the Bristol abortion facility says it specializes in “reproductive health” and abortions.
Not until after the lease was signed in June did the Kings learn that it was an abortion business, not a family medical practice, they said in the lawsuit.
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They told the broker that “they felt they had been misled and would never have leased the property to the Defendants” if they had known this, as they were “morally opposed” to such a use.
According to the suit, the broker tried to negotiate an amendment to the lease agreement that would allow only medical abortions within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, but the Kings refused and demanded that the lease be terminated. The defendants instead moved forward with work on the clinic, the suit said.
Derzis denied the allegations, and accused the Kings of not doing their “due diligence” to find out who she was.
“That’s on them,” she told the news outlet. “I think that they’ve received a lot of flak both at home and at work, from the people in Bristol.”
Abortion facilities do have a reputation for concealing their work from communities while working to open new locations. Some even create shell companies with different names to hide their true identity from landlords, construction workers, local government officials and community members.
Earlier this year, Derzis moved her abortion facility from Tennessee to the Virginia border town of Bristol, because Tennessee now protects unborn babies by banning elective abortions.
Local residents strongly oppose the abortion business, and the city council is considering a zoning ordinance that would stop abortion facilities from opening there. It would prevent any land, buildings, structures or other facilities in Bristol from being used to “carry out any practice, process, or procedure that is designed to intentionally cause the death or termination of a pre-born human life at any stage of development.”
A similar, county-wide ordinance also is being considered, the Bristol Herald Courier reports.
“Southwest Virginia has become a target for ‘tourism abortion’ because our neighboring states are ahead of our commonwealth in doing the good work of protecting human life within their states,” Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation, said in a statement in October.
The Family Foundation supports the pro-life ordinances.
