AURORA, Ill. (AP) -- A Planned Parenthood clinic that has been shuttered while city officials reviewed how it obtained its building permits will be allowed to open, city officials said Monday.
Mayor Thomas Weisner said reviews by three different attorneys found no legal basis to deny the clinic an occupancy permit. It was not clear when the clinic would open, but Weisner said the building department could issue a temporary occupancy permit as early as Monday.
The 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million building clinic, which was supposed to open last month, has been the target of anti-abortion protesters, who accused Planned Parenthood of deceiving the city into granting building permits.
The chapter that will run the facility, Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, applied for permits under the subsidiary name Gemini Office Development.
Planned Parenthood officials said they did so to protect the clinic's staff and construction workers from round-the-clock protests, but there was no effort to defraud city officials.
``Over the last few weeks, the city of Aurora has been inundated with thousands of phone calls, letters and requests from people who fell passionately on both sides of the abortion issue,'' Weisner said. ``As elected officials, we however are sworn to uphold the law regardless of our personal, emotional or even religious beliefs.''
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