The new Aurora, Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic has been forced to delay its anticipated September 18 opening. Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area is currently fighting the City of Aurora for withholding its business operating permit. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Planned Parenthood firmly states in a press release that it is “seeking to operate a medical facility consistent with the Aurora zoning code and should be treated no differently than any other properly zoned medical facility,” and that the city’s only objection is that it was “not given the opportunity to discriminate based on the fact that Planned Parenthood provides constitutionally protected services such as birth control and abortion to its patients.”
Planned Parenthood faces opposition from anti-abortion and religious groups, including the Holy Angels Catholic Church, and the Pro-Life Action League. Pro-Life’s communications director Eric Scheidler, son of Joseph Scheidler, has planned protests and prayer rallies, bringing close to 800 marching protesters to the clinic last weekend.
The new clinic, a $7.5 million, 22,000-square-foot facility is one of Planned Parenthood’s largest, and is set to offer a complete range of reproductive health-care services.
