'We have to be here': Potential abortion clinic site in Rockford draws 60 protesters

ROCKFORD — Anti-abortion protesters said the public should expect them to be a regular presence in the neighborhood along Auburn Street where an abortion provider has bought an office.

Kevin Rilott, president of the Rockford Family Initiative, said the activists realize their protests might disrupt the largely residential neighborhood. But Rilott said they feel compelled to take action after learning of plans to establish an abortion clinic at the location.

"Residents of this neighborhood should not have to deal with protests on the sidewalk in front of their homes," Rilott said. "But we as Christians and pro-lifers feel that when children are being killed, we have to be out there praying and protesting.

"So we understand the concern of the neighbors, but we have to be here."

About 60 activists carrying signs with anti-abortion messages and graphic images of what were described as aborted fetuses, gathered and prayed Friday outside what was once a chiropractic office at 611 Auburn Street.

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Dennis Christensen — an obstetrician from Madison, Wisconsin who once operated the Northern Illinois Women's Center abortion clinic in Rockford — bought the property for $75,000 on June 15, according to records filed with Winnebago County.

The women's center facility, 1400 Broadway, closed in 2012 after being fined by state authorities for unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Since its closure, Christensen had until recently worked with Affiliated Medical Services. It is an abortion and abortion pill provider with locations in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Wausau and Racine, Wisconsin, according to its website.

Efforts to reach Christensen on Friday for comment were not successful.

Although Christensen has been quoted as saying he plans to provide abortion pills via the location, protesters believe he will be using it to provide surgical abortions. It is believed that patients from Wisconsin could travel to Rockford for abortion services if it were to open.

Wisconsin abortion providers in late June stopped giving abortions. They feared that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision stripping Americans of the right to an abortion meant that an 1849 Wisconsin law was reinstated. It had banned the practice except to save a mother's life.

Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general filed a lawsuit June 28 challenging the state's 173-year-old abortion ban, saying that a 1985 statute supersedes it, according to reports from the Associated Press.

The property Christensen purchased operated as a chiropractor's office and residence for decades under the provisions of a special use permit issued in the early 1980s, Rockford City Administrator Todd Cagnoni said.

Mechanical, electrical and other permits were approved recently by the city for work at the location. A stop work order had been posted when some work had started without the proper permits.

But Cagnoni said Rockford requires the new owner to submit information about its planned use of the location to the city's code enforcement officer to determine if the new use would comply with provisions of the special use permit.

No information had been submitted as of Friday.

Nearby resident Steve Wanninger supports abortion rights and thinks that Rockford should have abortion services available.

But even when the office had operated as a chiropractor's office, it could be a hassle for his family. They would have to occasionally ask patients who parked in the alley blocking their garage to move their vehicles.

The prospect of near daily protests in their neighborhood is concerning, Wanninger said.

"There are no abortion clinics left in Rockford and haven't been for some time," Wanninger said. "I am all in favor of that existing in Rockford. I am not sure this is the right location for it."

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Another nearby resident, Shawn Rylatt, distributed a flier to his neighbors warning that an abortion clinic in the neighborhood would mean "regular protests in our neighborhood in front of the clinic: signs, bullhorns and crowds of people."

Rylatt urged his neighbors to contact Gina Meeks, D-12, the alderwoman of the ward where the clinic would be located, "to keep the abortion clinic out of our neighborhood."

Rylatt said he is opposed to abortion for moral reasons. But he said one of his biggest concerns with the clinic is economic. He said the clinic and the protests it brings with it will decimate property values in the area.

"Don’t get me wrong, I am going to be one of the protesters, but it has been shown it's not a good impact economically on the area for an abortion clinic to be in the neighborhood," Rylatt said. "I have a moral issue with it, but I am not talking about morality here. I am talking strictly about dollars."

Jeff Kolkey: (815) 987-1374; jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Neighbors of potential Rockford abortion clinic say location is wrong