LIFE DIGEST: Judge denies request by Planned Parenthood to open clinic

By Tom Strode - Sep 25, 2007 - comment

WASHINGTON – Planned Parenthood lost its first legal effort to open an Aurora, Ill., clinic that was built under a name that hid the nature of its business, which includes abortions.

Federal Judge Charles Norgle denied Sept. 20 Planned Parenthood’s request for an emergency order to force the city of Aurora to allow the organization to occupy the 22,000-square-foot clinic, according to the Chicago Tribune. Planned Parenthood attorneys plan to file an amended motion with Norgle in an effort to gain an occupancy permit, they said

The city of Aurora, a suburb of Chicago, had informed Planned Parenthood it would not allow the clinic to open until the city has finished investigating how permits to construct the building had been obtained, the Tribune reported. The organization has acknowledged it sought permits under the name of a subsidiary, Gemini Office Development LLC, to keep the information from pro-life activists, according to the newspaper.

The judge’s decision is “a victory for life and a victory for choice,” said Eric Scheidler, a spokesman for the Pro-life Action League, the Tribune reported. The organization led a 40-day campaign that drew pro-lifers from other parts of the country in an attempt to keep the clinic from opening.

The clinic is an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the leading abortion provider in the United States. More than 260,000 abortions were performed at PPFA clinics in the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The city of Aurora is seeking to determine if Planned Parenthood was guilty of fraud in applying for building permits under a different name. Gemini, Planned Parenthood’s subsidiary, said on its application the identity of the tenant was “unknown,” according to the Tribune. During a city council hearing, the newspaper reported, a Gemini spokesman said when asked about the building’s occupant: “We’re in negotiations with a tenant; we do not currently have one but we still want to move ahead.”

WOMAN SUES PLANNED PARENTHOOD

A 40-year-old woman has sued a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lincoln, Neb., after she suffered three seizures and nearly bled to death following an Aug. 17 abortion.

The woman, whose named was not disclosed, suffered severe pain and begged the doctor to stop shortly after the abortion began, according to the suit filed by a lawyer affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund. The doctor would not halt the procedure and directed staff members to hold the woman down while he completed the abortion, the suit alleges.

She collapsed while seeking to recover at the clinic and was taken by paramedics to a hospital, where an emergency hysterectomy was conducted to save her life, according to the suit. A hospital report shows the woman had experienced a catastrophic perforation of her uterus that resulted in the loss of a massive amount of blood. It also reports areas around her uterus were “shredded,” according to ADF.

“Our client doesn’t want this horror to happen to anyone else,” said ADF-affiliated lawyer Jefferson Downing of Lincoln. “She believes that women have the right to know that they could be risking their lives. Our client feels completely violated. Her right to choose to have the procedure stopped was ignored, and she was also robbed of her right to choose to have children in the future as well.”

The baby who was killed in the abortion was at about 10 weeks’ gestation, according to ADF.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Science, Bioethics

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