Judge Blocks Opening of
Planned Parenthood Clinic
Friday, September 21, 2007
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - A federal judge on Thursday turned down a request from Planned Parenthood to allow its Chicago-area chapter to open a $7.5 million clinic in Aurora, Ill. The judge is waiting on the city government to finish investigating charges that the abortion provider used secrecy and fraud to obtain permission to build the 22,000-square-foot facility.
Pro-life groups hailed the ruling as a definitive step towards stripping away Planned Parenthood's apparent public deception. Pro-abortion groups, on the other hand, criticized the ruling as politics interfering with a woman's right to choose.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle, Sr., said that there was "a dearth of evidence" showing discrimination against Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area (PPCA) and that city officials did not have enough time to conduct a reasonable investigation.
However, Norgle further stated that "by no means is the case over" because he left open the option for PPCA to file for another preliminary injunction against the city if the company compiles more evidence to support its case.
During two hours of arguments in court, Lance Malina, an attorney representing Aurora, told the judge that the case was not really about abortion, but instead the city's right to regulate the use of its land.
Malina also said that the reason Planned Parenthood is "in the predicament they are in today is because they misled, or may have misled, the city of Aurora. They came to this hearing with unclean hands."
Christopher Wilson, an attorney for PPCA, responded that his organization was just asking that the new structure "be treated like any other medical facility, an eye-care clinic, a foot-care clinic, a dermatology clinic, and be allowed to open for business."
As long as the facility is shut down, "women are not being treated for sexually transmitted diseases, women are not able to be screened for breast cancer," said Wilson. "This is happening every single day that this 'independent' review goes on."
Nevertheless, Thursday's ruling means that Aurora city officials will have time to finish investigating possible "material omissions" when Planned Parenthood - which identified itself as Gemini Office Development LLC - was going through the permit process regarding construction of the facility.
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Carie Anne Ergo, a spokesman for the city, said Aurora's investigation should be completed by Friday.
Then the city will submit all its materials to State's Attorney John Barsanti, who will review the information to ensure that the review was completely independent and unbiased, a process that is expected to take less than a week. After that, the city council will make a decision regarding the fate of the clinic.
But on Thursday, reaction to Norgle's ruling was strongly divided.
Eric Scheidler, communications director for the Pro-Life Action League (PLAL), told Cybercast News Service that the judge's decision "is a great victory for life and a great victory for the freedom of choice" because "the people of the city of Aurora will have a say in their own destiny."
However, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a news release that the ruling "is a disappointment and will only serve to encourage the campaign of harassment and intimidation being waged by anti-choice extremists against health-care providers and their patients nationwide."
"It's time to put a stop to politics trumping health care for women, men and teens," she added. "City leaders must stop bowing to political pressure and allow Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area to get back to the business of providing much-needed health care to the community."
Scheidler responded that PLAL will continue to apply "pressure" on Aurora officials regarding the issue.
"Our next move as a group is to go into the city council on Tuesday, as we have for several weeks now, to call for the council to have a full session open to the public in which they vote on how to respond to the findings," he said. "We want all 12 aldermen on record with regard to this matter."
"I think, if nothing else, no matter how things turn out in Aurora, Planned Parenthood has now been deprived of this most vicious weapon of deceit," said Scheidler. "They know they can't get away with this again.
"We'll be watching them in every city and town in this nation, and they will no longer be able to come into a city under a cloud of deception," he added. As a result, "this is a great victory not only for my town, but for towns and cities all over the United States."
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