The Chicago-based pro-life legal group, Thomas More Society, reports its ongoing lawsuit against Planned Parenthood over its 21,000-square-foot “mega-abortion facility” in Aurora, Illinois will be able to continue, as the Illinois Appellate Court, Second Judicial District has reversed a lower court’s decision to throw out the suit.
Thomas More is challenging the legality of Planned Parenthood having built the clinic in a business development district from which the law specifically bars ostensibly non-profit entities. The court ruled that litigation on this claim may resume, though it upheld the dismissal of “several secondary claims” against the abortion giant.
“Planned Parenthood built its abortion facility in Aurora under false pretenses and in blatant violation of the strictures of Aurora’s zoning code, which require a tax-paying for-profit use on that site,” Thomas More Special Counsel Peter Breen said in the press release. The statement goes on to accuse Planned Parenthood of acquiring construction permits for the facility via dummy “front” companies and of changing its tax status to avoid zoning requirements.
“Planned Parenthood boasted that it had been paying property taxes on the property from 2006 throughout the pendency of proceedings in the circuit court, and its attorneys argued that such payment of property taxes proved that it was lawfully operating as a for-profit entity,” according to the press release. “However, within a few months after the suit was dismissed by the circuit court, Planned Parenthood applied for and was granted property tax exemptions and a rebate of taxes paid for the prior three years, arguing that its use of the property was strictly charitable and non-profit.”
Live Action News previously reported in 2011 that Planned Parenthood had nearly a dozen such “abortion supercenters” either in operation or under construction.
