West Suburban Bureau

CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, Derrick Blakley, Mike Puccinelli and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
AURORA, Ill. (CBS) ― After weeks of delays, protests and legal challenges, a women's health clinic that performs abortions has opened in Aurora, but activists are committed to driving it out of town.

The Planned Parenthood clinic on Aurora's East New York Street officially opened Tuesday morning. Its opening was delayed because Aurora officials would not issue occupancy permits while a review was under way into Planned Parenthood's use of a subsidiary, Gemini Office Development, to build the clinic.

On Monday, Mayor Tom Weisner announced that reviews by three different attorneys found no legal basis to deny an occupancy permit to the clinic, even if Planned Parenthood was less than forthcoming about its presence there. That paved the way for the clinic to open, two weeks after it was scheduled to do so.

Anti-abortion activists, who have been mounting round-the-clock protests, said they do not view the opening as a failure. They said the two weeks they succeeded in keeping the clinic closed saved unborn lives, and they vow to continue their fight.

But they prayed out loud and to themselves in what they called a day of mourning. They carried rosaries and brought signs and symbols.

Weisner said Monday he felt that Planned Parenthood was "less than forthcoming in some ways" but added that other developers have been known to avoid disclosing they have a tenant in place for a building.

He said he felt that he had an obligation to investigate the allegations and acknowledged being "inundated with thousands of phone calls, letters and requests from people who felt passionately on both sides of the abortion issue.

"As elected officials, we, however, are sworn to uphold the law regardless of our personal, emotional or even religious beliefs," he said. "Based on the opinions of these three attorneys, the city of Aurora has no legal basis to deny Planned Parenthood an occupancy permit."

"This fight was about providing services that some take for granted, but many don't have access to, and yes, this fight was about providing access to abortion services," said Steve Trombley, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area. "But we know that the services we provide at this center will do more in one day to prevent abortions than our opponents will do in a lifetime of protesting."

Supporters of the center cheered at Trombley's remarks, while their opponents planned their next move. They claim the center does not have a special use permit, which would be required as a not-for-profit.

"Every citizen in Aurora, every developer in Aurora, every property owner in Aurora should be very concerned about the precedent that was set here," said Eric Scheidler, spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League. "We have zoning laws that have been completely ignored."

Their first step, he says, is to go to the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals, and the group also plans to file a lawsuit.

Scheidler believes the Planned Parenthood facility requires a special use permit. But the city's attorney says that's not so.

"There is no question in my mind that the special use procedure that several people are trying to say is appropriate here is not appropriate," said Aurora corporation counsel Alayne Weingartz.

Ultimately the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals will decide that issue within the next 30 days.

Planned Parenthood says it sees no basis for the lawsuit, and will continue providing services ranging from PAP tests to abortion.

"Ninety percent of Planned Parenthood's services are about basic reproductive preventative health care," Trombley said. "It's providing birth control testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections."

But the anti-abortion activists say the clinic is really an abortion mill.

"The entire pro-life community is mobilized by what's happening here in Aurora," Scheidler said.

Scheidler says activists in 89 communities across the country are praying that the latest building in Aurora to open will be the next one to shut down.

The next fight is over where protesters can stand. Planned Parenthood owns the half of the street closest to its building. The protesters are supposed to stand 25 feet away. That puts them in a privately owned field.

The Aurora corporation counsel says it's up to the field's owner to decide whether to allow protesters there.

Also Monday, anti-abortion activists filed a libel lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in Kane County district court, claiming Planned Parenthood stated in a letter to Aurora officials and in at least one newspaper advertisement that opponents of the clinic had "a well-documented history of violence and criminal activity."

Trombley said he saw "no basis for this lawsuit" but that he hadn't read it and so couldn't comment further.

(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs of Chicago.)