Alabama abortion clinic scheme denied license again

Sometimes you wonder how stupid abortion clinic operators think state governments are.

A state hearing officer has ruled against Kelley Rain-Water in her appeal of the state health department’s denial of her license application to reopen the New Woman All Women Health Care.

Rain-Water said she plans to redo the clinic lease that caused concerns at the Department of Public Health and make another application.

“I am very optimistic. I cannot see a reason I would be denied if we have an acceptable lease,” she said.

I wonder why the state would trust a word of a potential new lease after the recently denied lease would have allowed Rain-Water to "run" her friend Diane Derzis' abortion business and funnel all the profits to her friend after her friend lost the clinic's license.

New Woman All Women Health Care had been Alabama’s best known abortion clinic because of a fatal bombing in 1989, but it agreed to shut down in May after being cited by the health department for violations, including two patients being given overdoses of drugs and needing to be taken to a hospital. The health department’s agreement with the operator, Diane Derzis, allowed her to lease it to a new operator that ran it independently of her.

Rain-Water, a friend of Derzis, got a lease, but the health department denied her application for a license. Department attorney Brian Hale said her lease let Derzis or her company, All Women Inc., have a role in determining how much profit the new operation makes and requires that all profit go to Derzis company.

Hale said that gave Derzis an active role in the new operation.

It's not like any new lease would be anything but a front for a sham operation that allows Derzis to maintain control of her abortion clinic and its profits.