{"id":300067,"date":"2023-10-13T08:45:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T13:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=300067"},"modified":"2023-10-15T23:42:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T04:42:23","slug":"abortion-queen-women-pay-extra-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-queen-women-pay-extra-abortions\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Abortion Queen’ makes women pay extra for abortions: ‘They shouldn’t be fully funded’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Diane Derzis, an abortion facility owner who has been nicknamed the “abortion queen,” is facing severe criticism from abortion advocates after she was found to be charging women extra money for abortions. Her reasoning was that these women need to have “skin in the game.”<\/p>\n

STAT News reported<\/a> that Stephanie Rosenwinge grew up idolizing Derzis, and was excited to work with her idol at a new facility in Bristol, Virginia. But the reality didn’t measure up to the fantasy; Rosenwinge said Derzis was telling staff to cut back on the amount of financial aid they were giving to women. Derzis also allegedly told staff that women needed to pay something out-of-pocket, even if insurance or abortion organizations covered all of the abortion expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I want these patients to have some skin in the game,'” Rosenwinge recalled. “‘They shouldn\u2019t be fully funded.'”<\/p>\n

Another staffer, Olivia Nickels, backed up Rosenwinge’s claims. \u201cUs on the frontline, seeing patients, seeing their emotion, seeing how much they struggle, we are witnessing how terrible it might be for them,\u201d she said. \u201cSo being told not to provide [full] financial assistance information to those patients was a stab in the gut, to be totally honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both women quit. And Derzis, in her comments to STAT News, seems to have no remorse about overcharging her patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were having women have free abortions,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are not only using all the money, but every woman did not need to have financial assistance. The purpose of funding was to make sure there was money there for people who needed that.\u201d<\/p>\n