Permits in hand, disputed Planned Parenthood opens in Aurora

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

AURORA (AP) — Mayor Tom Weisner says Planned Parenthood was “less than forthcoming” when it used a subsidiary to build a clinic in this Chicago suburb.

But he also says attorney reviews found no legal basis to deny an occupancy permit to the clinic, so it opened to patients Tuesday — two weeks later than originally planned.

About 100 protesters — some holding red roses, others rosaries and some with signs reading “Planned Parenthood: Bad for Aurora” — gathered on sidewalks near the clinic, which became a focus of the national abortion debate while local officials reviewed the development process.

“We have no regrets about how we went about this process,” Steve Trombley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, said Tuesday. “We kept it private from our opponents, and we did it for good reason.”

Trombley said patients were expected Tuesday and later this week.

Weisner said the city received thousands of letters and phone calls from people voicing passionate opinions about abortion while the legal reviews were pending.

“As government we are here to follow the law, and I believe that is what we have done,” Weisner said Monday.

But with one lawsuit already filed by anti-abortion activists and another one promised, the case is likely to stay active in the courts.

“It won’t be over until Planned Parenthood leaves Aurora,” said Eric Scheidler, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, which has organized protests and prayer vigils outside the building.

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood’s 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million building was decorated with a bright pink 40-foot banner reading “This Center is Now Open.”

Dee Manny, head of the McHenry County Citizens for Choice, said the clinic would offer valuable health services to poor and uninsured women. She also said it’s important to protect abortion rights.

“The anti-choice people want to take us back to the 19th century when contraception was not available and women begged their doctors to help avoid pregnancy,” she said.

But Lucie Groleske of Aurora said she wanted to remind women there are alternatives to abortion.

“In this age when people are trying to ’go green’ and recycle, recycle, recycle, yet people are throwing away the most valuable resource on this planet — a human being,” said the 37-year-old stay-at-home mother of four.

Anti-abortion protesters have accused Planned Parenthood of deceiving officials in Illinois’ second-largest city into granting building permits.

It became public knowledge in late July that Planned Parenthood would occupy the space. Aurora officials would not issue occupancy permits reviews were under way into Planned Parenthood’s use of a subsidiary, Gemini Office Development, to build the clinic.

Planned Parenthood officials said they were trying to protect the clinic’s staff and construction workers from protests, but there was no effort to defraud city officials.

Weisner said Monday he felt Planned Parenthood was “less than forthcoming in some ways” but added that other developers have been known to avoid disclosing they have a tenant in place for a building.

Scheidler said his group planned to file another lawsuit in DuPage County on Tuesday claiming that because Planned Parenthood is a not-for-profit, it required a special-use permit that would have required a public hearing and notification of nearby property owners.

One attorney’s reviews already dismissed that argument.

On Monday, anti-abortion activists filed a libel lawsuit in Kane County district court, claiming Planned Parenthood stated in a letter to Aurora officials and in at least one newspaper advertisement that clinic opponents had “a well-documented history of violence and criminal activity.”

“You cannot accuse the peaceful citizens of Aurora of violent crimes and advocating violence simply because you disagree with their message,” said attorney Tom Brejcha of the Thomas More Society of Chicago, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of 19 area activists.

Trombley said he saw “no basis for this lawsuit” but hadn’t read it and so couldn’t comment further.

———

On the Net:

City of Aurora: http://www.aurora-il.org/

Planned Parenthood: www.plannedparenthood.org

Pro-Life Action Network: www.prolifeaction.org