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BIRMINGHAM, AL, October 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Alabama circuit court has rejected disgraced abortionist Bruce Norman’s request that it reconsider an order banning him from performing abortions at his unlicensed clinic, which was closed by court order after numerous health and safety violations.

Norman had told the court that he would willingly obey state law in the future if they lifted the ban.

Pro-life attorneys with the Life Legal Defense Foundation had filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Norman's bid to continue performing abortions at Diane Dervis’s unlicensed New Woman, All Women abortion clinic in Birmingham. They argued that the abortionist had contradicted his own sworn testimony with information he had submitted to bolster his case. They also said that promising to follow the law in the future doesn’t mean he should escape judgment for his previous misdeeds.

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“Simply agreeing to follow the law does not alter the fact that the law was violated in the first place,” stated Attorney Allison Aranda, Senior Staff Counsel for Life Legal Defense Foundation. “Such an argument would be comparable to a person committing a battery, being tried and convicted of battery, and then asking the judge to overturn his conviction because he promises not to do it again. There simply is no basis in law for this type of post-judgment repentance.”

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Dervis’s abortion facility had its license revoked in 2012 after the Alabama Department of Public Health found 76 pages’ worth of safety violations there, including:

·      Regular practice of non-licensed employees performing procedures that require a licensed nurse or doctor.

·      Use of equipment with inspection dates from 2007 or no inspection date at all.

·      Inexperienced employees working independently with no documentation of training, which directly resulted in the hospitalization of two patients on January 21, 2012.

·      Failure to keep accurate, complete medical records for patients. The state survey team found ultrasound photos dated days after procedures, numerous charts signed by an off-duty nurse, inconsistent time logs, and purposefully altered records.

Other violations cited by investigators included lack of documentation for physicians, failure to follow-up with patients, and failure to monitor patients for discharge.

In ordering the clinic’s license removed, authorities also cited Norman’s injury of a woman in neighboring Mississippi, at that state's last remaining abortion clinic, which is also owned by Derzis. In that case, the victim ended up in intensive care following Norman’s administration of the drug Pitocin during an abortion.

But even after the state revoked the clinic’s license, Norman continued performing abortions there, leading the court to order the clinic closed and ban Norman from practicing at that location.

On October 3, Judge Joseph Boohaker rejected Norman’s request to reconsider that ban in a short one-sentence ruling, stating simply that “after due consideration,” the abortionist’s petition had been denied.