On December 16, 2005, Alexander's practice in Ann Arbor came to an end when his landlord evicted him for non-payment of rent.  In the ensuing next few months, Alexander sought desperately to find a new place to resume his abortion practice in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area.  Alexander was finally successful in convincing a well-known Ypsilanti business owner, Hedger Breed, to rent him the location at 9 S. Washington in downtown Ypsilanti.

Alexander has a checkered past. "In September 1988, [Alexander] was convicted in federal court, by jury trial, on 12 of 15 counts brought against him.  The conviction included one count of conspiracy to distribute eight controlled substances and eleven counts of distributing or aiding and abetting the distribution of four of those controlled substances.  [Alexander] was sentenced to several concurrent four-year terms of imprisonment, a $25,000 fine, and a three-year special parole term...[Alexander] began his prison term on January 3, 1989, served 23 months of his sentence in prison and in a half-way house," and remained on parole until December 1996 (http://www.hhs.gov/dab/decisions/cr-244.htm).

On August 3, 1990, the Michigan Department of Commerce Board of Medicine revoked Alexander's license to practice medicine, which he subsequently regained sometime later during the 1990s.  In addition, sometime in late 2004 or early 2005, Alexander lost his admitting privileges at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Rapids, where he had been moonlighting.    

Since March 2006, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (CPS) has led an organized campaign to oust Alexander from Ypsilanti and stop him from victimizing more women and their unborn children.  

CPS is a pro-life Catholic activist organization dedicated to saving unborn children from the horror of abortion.  CPS was founded in 1986 by Monica Migliorino Miller, PhD, who serves as its national executive director.  Dr. Miller is currently an Associate Professor of Sacred Theology at St. Mary's College of Madonna University in Orchard Lake, Michigan, and currently hosts the Christ & Culture Forum, a Catholic radio program on 1090 AM WCAR in Detroit.    

CPS, which is now based in Michigan, has been active in the Midwest region for the past two decades, especially in Illinois and Wisconsin.  CPS regularly sponsors pro-life vigils, protests, seminars, and side-walk counseling outside of abortion clinics and is committed to finding a peaceful solution to the abortion crisis.  You can learn more about CPS here: http://www.prolifesociety.com/pages/default.aspx        

After a year-and-a-half of initiating weekly protests, conducting frequent side-walk counseling sessions, and filing legal complaints against Alexander, Dr. Miller announced in an August 9, 2007 e-mail to CPS members that victory in Ypsilanti seemed to be finally at hand:

"Robert L. Alexander, only 18 months into a 5 year lease in his abortion mill in Ypsilanti, has closed that facility. It looks like it is closed for good. That means, that this abortionist, who has been killing the unborn in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area for at least 8 years is out!!"  

Next Thursday, I will further detail the battle between CPS and Alexander, including the confrontations between CPS members and pro-abortion activists who came out to Alexander's Ypsilanti abortion mill to support Alexander - a convicted federal felon.

About the author: Andrew Shirvell is a pro-life citizen activist who writes a weekly Thursday column for RightMichigan.com in which he focuses on Michigan pro-life issues. Shirvell attended Ave Maria School of Law - Ann Arbor, where he served as president of the school's Bioethics Society, from 2004-2005.  He also served as president of Students for Life at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, from 2000-2002