Judge Refuses to Force City to Allow PPFA Abortion Clinic to Open

This afternoon, U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle refused to order officials in Aurora, Illinois, "to let a controversial Planned Parenthood clinic open while officials investigate whether the organization broke any laws when it applied for building permits," according to the Associated Press (AP).

Planned Parenthood had gone to court September 13, insisting that city officials were treating the mega-clinic in a discriminatory fashion. According to the AP, Judge Norgle "said Planned Parenthood needed to provide more proof that it is being discriminated against by officials in the Chicago suburb." The newspaper also quoted Judge Norgle as saying, "`By no means is this case over."

At the heart of the controversy is that the ownership of the clinic was kept secret as the 22,000 square foot, $7.5 million clinic was being built in this suburb west of Chicago.

The Planned Parenthood clinic has been awash in disputes since July when the Chicago Tribune identified the tenants' true identity. As the Washington Post described the situation this morning, "Planned Parenthood spokespeople say the organization followed 'the letter of the law' but acknowledge it tried to keep the clinic's identity under wraps during the permitting process because of a growing trend of abortion opponents using municipal zoning and permitting regulations to try to block clinics from opening."

The Post noted that when the contractor--Gemini Office Development--applied for permits for the building, "it at one point listed the tenant as 'unknown' on city documents." In fact Gemini is a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood's local branch.

In late August city officials said the opening (scheduled for September 18) would depend on what TIME magazine described as a "fresh review" of the building permit. The city declined to issue a permanent occupancy permit (the temporary permit expired last Monday). "These concerns were raised once this became high-profile, and people began looking back at the process," Carie Anne Ergo, the city's spokeswoman, told TIME.

The city hired attorney Phillip Leutkehans "to conduct an independent investigation into the approval process for Planned Parenthood's new facility on East New York Street," according to the Chicago Tribune.

Ergo told reporters that the mayor and the council "felt they needed an independent third party to determine whether city processes were followed and if not, what the city's recourse is."

On September 13, Planned Parenthood responded with a suit filed in U.S. District Court, telling U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle  "that the city was making the permitting process political, and treating them differently than other businesses," the Post reported.

Planned Parenthood continues to argue that the area is medically "underserved." But as Dr. Randall K. O'Bannon, director of the NRLC Education Department, observes, "Not counting the Aurora clinic, Planned Parenthood has seven regular "health centers" in the Chicago area and three new "express clinics" in the suburbs, opened in the last few years.

"Two of the clinics in the downtown Chicago area perform abortions. How many are performed at each of those clinics is unknown, but the Illinois Department of Health reports 21,786 abortions for 2004 in Cook County, where the clinics are located."

Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.