The landlord of an abortion facility in Bristol, Virginia, is again attempting to evict the business, but the owner is vowing to stay.
Diane Derzis owns Bristol Women’s Health Center, which leases a commercial property building from brothers Chase King and Chadwick King. From the very beginning, the King brothers have tried to evict the abortion facility, claiming in December of 2022 that Derzis was not truthful about the nature of her business when she signed the lease with them. They said that the broker “represented that the type of medical practice of her clients was a general family practice,” and “they felt they had been misled and would never have leased the property to the Defendants” had they known it was an abortion facility.
Derzis denies misleading the King brothers, and said it’s their own fault for not doing due diligence on what the facility would be. Previously, Bristol Women’s Health had been operating just one mile away — across the state line in Bristol, Tennessee — and moved to its current location to escape Tennessee’s laws protecting preborn children from abortion.
Now, Derzis said she received a letter in April saying the lease would be terminated within 30 days, but filed an emergency order to stop the eviction, and vowed to keep her facility open. “The clinic will definitely stay open,” she said. “As these [abortion] bans continue and these crazy states surrounding Virginia continue this nonsense, it just makes it even more important that we be here for these women who need us.”
A hearing was held on May 30th in Bristol Circuit Court, but Judge Sage Johnson hasn’t yet issued a ruling. Johnson also hasn’t yet ruled on a lawsuit filed by the King brothers in 2023, which accused the facility of fraud. The Kings claimed they were not told abortions would be committed on site, and said they have suffered personal and professional losses as a result of owning a building which houses an abortion facility.
In the meantime, Derzis said she is looking to relocate, but cannot find a suitable building to move to.
READ: ‘Abortion Queen’ makes women pay extra for abortions: ‘They shouldn’t be fully funded’
Derzis, who has been nicknamed the “Abortion Queen,” has a long background of controversy. Her current facility is being sued by parents who say their 15-year-old daughter was pressured by abortion facility staff to get an abortion. According to the lawsuit, the girl “intended to take her child to full term and intended to deliver her baby at the appropriate time,” but a social services employee repeatedly pressured her to have an abortion, and even set up an appointment for her, even though the girl reportedly “remained upset throughout the process, and initially refused to cooperate with any abortion.” She was subjected to a chemical abortion.
A facility Derzis owned in Alabama was forcibly closed after it was found to be in terrible condition, and three patients were hospitalized; one was placed in intensive care on the same day. State health inspectors ultimately found 76 pages’ worth of health code violations.
After this, Derzis moved to Mississippi, where she opened her infamous “pink house” abortion facility, and continued employing the same abortionist responsible for the Alabama injuries. She believes that God wants her to commit abortions, and made headlines last year for saying that women should pay extra for abortions (even if those abortions were fully funded) because women needed to have “skin in the game.”
