Ladies, PLAL is not your pal.

The Pro-Life Action League, a Chicago-based anti-choice group, has gathered its members and fought tooth and nail to prevent Planned Parenthood from opening its new facility in Aurora.

PLAL seems to think the new 22,000 square-foot facility is there only to perform abortions, but Planned Parenthood expects fewer than 10 percent of its patients will be there for abortion-related services.

Planned Parenthood also provides adoption counseling and placement, cancer screenings, menopause-related services, contraceptives, crisis counseling, and your run-of-the-mill annual gynecological exam.

The crux of this ongoing fight involves how Planned Parenthood obtained their building permit for the site: using the name of a subsidiary, Gemini Office Development, LLC. Steve Trombley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood/Chicago freely admits they did this to stay under the radar of anti-choice groups. Trombley said the possible protests and violence would have slowed construction.

This kind of corporate subterfuge is standard practice.

“It is not at all uncommon in the U.S. ... for corporations to conduct business via subsidiaries precisely in order to disguise who the real party in interest is.” said Marc Falkoff, NIU associate professor of law.

Nevertheless, PLAL complained about this move, so Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner hired outside counsel to look over the applications. Neither Chicago attorney Richard Martens nor the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office could find sufficient reason on which the building permit, which had already been granted, could be revoked.

At their first chance to protest, PLAL’s questionable behavior justified Planned Parenthood’s secretive actions. Now that the clinic is open, PLAL is planning to harass the clinic’s employees.

Eric Scheidler, communications director for PLAL, said, “We certainly are willing to picket the homes of abortion workers.”

Scheidler also said they’re willing to challenge city anti-picketing ordinances, which prohibit protests near private residences.

As for how they’ll discover who the workers are and where they live, he said, “We’ll deal with that when (it opens).”

That statement lends credibility to Trombley’s accusations that PLAL members have been photographing license plates at the facility.

This is exactly why Planned Parenthood applied for the permits under another name: to minimize harassment and damages. Construction crews don’t like being harassed any more than nurses, doctors, or you.

Planned Parenthood is there to protect a woman’s reproductive health. PLAL is there to pester people and distort facts. With this in mind, it’s abundantly clear which group really cares about women.

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