Efforts to establish a medical clinic in Arlington Heights that might perform abortions have stalled–but state health officials said Thursday it’s premature to suggest the plans have been abandoned.
A hearing of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board–which was scheduled to consider the clinic’s application on Thursday–was canceled. Mike Copelin, a health planning specialist for the Illinois Department of Public Health said the board wanted more time to consider the request.
Copelin said the decision wasn’t based on the merits of the clinic’s request, and that clinic officials might be back in November to renew their petition at the board’s next meeting.
“There’s nothing pro or con” that’s been decided on the project itself, Copelin said.
Yet the board, which determines the location of health facilities in Illinois, already denied a similar proposal from the Des Plaines-based clinic in October 1996.
Officials of Dimensions Medical Center Ltd. did not return calls for comment Thursday, and it was unclear what the clinic’s next step would be.
Dimensions proposed moving from its Des Plaines location to an office building at 1640 N. Arlington Heights Rd. in Arlington Heights.
Dr. Vinod Goyal, who owns the Arlington Heights building, had decided to rename the facility Northwest Community Health Center Ltd. once it opened in Arlington Heights. While the application to the health planning board doesn’t specify if abortions would be among the outpatient surgical procedures the clinic would perform, opponents fear the new medical facility would eventually turn into an abortion clinic.
A group of pediatricians whose practice is at the site of the proposed clinic have already sued Dimensions Medical Center, claiming their practices would suffer if an abortion clinic were located adjacent to their offices.
So far, the courts have been on the pediatricians’ side.
In June 1996, a Cook County Circuit judge entered a preliminary injunction blocking the medical center from opening in Arlington Heights. The decision was based on a provision in the pediatricians’ lease preventing the building’s owners from renting space to any physicians who would perform abortions.
An appellate court judge upheld the injunction in March, and this month, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to that decision, said Lawrence Karlin, an attorney for the pediatricians.
The case is now back before the circuit court to rule on the merits of the entire lawsuit. Karlin said he is optimistic the courts will rule in favor of the pediatricians.
“I think the case is over,” he said.
The Rev. Dave Wardle, pastor of the Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church, supported the pediatricians through a petition drive that garnered 4,000 signatures from northwest suburban residents. He’s confident the fight is over.
“I just don’t know what other recourse there is at this point (for the clinic). The big issue was: Was it a good lease or not? And all the courts have said, `Yes, it’s a good lease,’ ” Wardle said.
Yet one of the pediatricians, Dr. Elchanan Golan, isn’t claiming victory just yet.
“It’s somewhat of a relief for the time being,” he said, “but whether it’s the end of the story, I don’t know.”
