Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

News :: Civil & Human Rights : Gender & Sexuality : Right Wing : Women's Issues

Anti-Choice protestors in Aurora

Anti-abortion protest aims to close Aurora clinic

More than 800 people gathered for peaceful protest Saturday against a Planned Parenthood clinic in suburban Aurora.

The event comes in response to statements earlier in the week from Chicago and suburban religious leaders who spoke out in favor of the clinic and women's reproductive rights.

Abortion protesters carrying anti-abortion signs and singing hymns marched in seven separate groups of more than 100 through residential areas surrounding the clinic.

"Satan has been able to creep into our gospel. Jesus said that this is my body, take and eat from it. Now we hear people say that this is my body, I can do what I want with it," said Rev. Martin Heinz of Holy Angels Catholic Church in Aurora "We are on the cliff's edge and it is time for the Christian faithful to hide no more," the minister added.

Saturday's march comes a day after two separate hearings in federal court in Chicago. A request by Planned Parenthood for the city to grant them a permit to open on time was put off until Monday, a day before the clinic's scheduled opening. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall will hear that motion.

Also Friday, the city of Aurora asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent Saturday's march, claiming the protest would violate an ordinance prohibiting marching through neighborhoods. Kendall denied that motion.

The entire flap began when Gemini Office Development LLC applied for permits for a building at 3051 E. New York St., not revealing until later that Planned Parenthood would operate an abortion clinic there.

Since word got out in late July after a Tribune story, the construction site has been the scene of round-the-clock candle vigils. Each week the number of abortion protesters in the state's second largest city has been growing.

About 400 people showed up at a protest outside the clinic Aug. 16, then more than 1,000 demonstrated Aug. 25. Also hundreds have spoken out at Aurora City Council meetings, questioning the tactics used by Planned Parenthood to gain approval for the clinic.

Although the city already issued Planned Parenthood a temporary occupancy certificate, Aurora officials have said they would not issue a permanent one until an investigation is completed into the approval process. The temporary occupancy certificate expires Monday.

Claiming that they had lost faith in the objectivity of the city, Planned Parenthood filed suit Thursday seeking an emergency court order requiring the city to permit the clinic to open on Tuesday.

Planned Parenthood officials say they have 13 appointments scheduled for Tuesday. The $7.5 million, 22,000-square-foot medical facility, one of the group's largest in the country, will offer reproductive health-care services, including abortions.

The facility will be Planned Parenthood's first full-service site in the Chicago area in 20 years and the only one to perform abortions other than a Near North Side Chicago location.

Aurora officials say the investigation will look at the accuracy of documents submitted and testimony given by Gemini officials.

Planned Parenthood conceded it was coy during the application process because it did not want to tip off its opponents while the clinic was under construction, but it denied defrauding or deceiving the city. It is a strategy the agency has employed since a 2004 boycott by contractors stalled work for two months on an Austin, Texas, clinic.
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software