|
 Mayor Tom Weisner said reviews by three different attorneys found no legal basis to deny an occupancy permit to the clinic. A temporary permit was granted Monday afternoon, and city officials said a permanent one would be issued soon.
The clinic will start seeing patients Tuesday morning, Planned Parenthood said hours after Aurora announced its decision.
"It's always a victory when we can expand access to reproductive health care services, including abortion services," said Steve Trombley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area. "If our opponents block us from entering any community, it opens the door to them blocking us from going into every community."
The 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million building, which was supposed to open last month, has been the target of anti-abortion protesters, who accused Planned Parenthood of deceiving the city into granting building permits.
The chapter that will run the facility, Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, applied for permits under the subsidiary name Gemini Office Development.
Planned Parenthood officials said they did so to protect the clinic's staff and construction workers from round-the-clock protests, but there was no effort to defraud city officials.
Anti-abortion activists point to a November 2006 planning and development committee when an alderman asked, "Is this building being specifically built for a client?"
A man city attorneys have labeled a Gemini official replied: "We're in negotiations with a tenant; we do not currently have a lease but we will want to move ahead."
At a City Hall news conference, Weisner said he felt that 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.
"Over the last few weeks, the city of Aurora has been inundated with thousands of phone calls, letters and requests from people who fell passionately on both sides of the abortion issue," Weisner said. "As elected officials, we, however, are sworn to uphold the law regardless of our personal, emotional or even religious beliefs."
Earlier Monday, Kane County's state's attorney said Planned Parenthood broke no criminal laws when it used the name of its subsidiary to apply for permits.
[to top of second column]
 |
 However, State's Attorney John Barsanti said he looked only into potential violations of Illinois criminal law and had no authority or jurisdiction in matters involving city or village ordinances, land use or zoning.
Eric Scheidler, spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, which has helped organize protests at the clinic, said his group will file a lawsuit in DuPage County on Tuesday alleging that because Planned Parenthood is a not-for-profit group, it required a special-use permit, which would have required a public hearing and notification of nearby property owners.
One of the attorneys' reviews already dismissed that argument, but Scheidler said he'll continue working to get the clinic shut down.
"It won't be over until Planned Parenthood leaves Aurora," Scheidler said.
Also Monday, anti-abortion activists filed a libel lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in Kane County District Court, claiming Planned Parenthood stated in a letter to Aurora officials and in at least one newspaper advertisement that opponents of the clinic 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 that he hadn't read it and so couldn't comment further.
___
On the Net:
City of Aurora:
http://www.aurora-il.org/
Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
Pro-Life Action Network: http://www.prolifeaction.org/
[Associated Press; by Tara
Burghart]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
 |
