COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Nearly three months after a gunman shot and killed three people outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., the facility has reopened, scarred but still standing. The building, which was heavily damaged when it was rammed with an armored police vehicle during the shooting, was partially rebuilt in the intervening months and had its first patients Monday.

It was none too soon for Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. The pent-up need in the Colorado Springs area for services such as breast exams, HIV tests, and contraception services meant that the clinic’s 30 appointment slots filled up in a matter of hours, after the clinic announced last week that it would reopen. (Abortions are slated to resume next week.) And workers were antsy to return.

‘‘The staff was just gleeful to be back at it and back in their community giving that high-quality care,’’ Cowart said.

But there was no way around remembering the trauma of the Nov. 27 shooting. The dead that day were Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Iraq war veteran who had been outside the clinic on his cellphone; Jennifer Markovsky, 35, a mother of two who had been at the clinic to support a friend; and Garret Swasey, a University of Colorado police officer who had responded to the incident.

After a five-hour standoff, police took into custody Robert Lewis Dear Jr., a malcontent and drifter who allegedly muttered to law enforcement about ‘‘no more baby parts’’ during his arrest. At a December hearing, he called himself a ‘‘warrior for the babies.’’ He was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation.

Antiabortion groups have condemned the shooting and disavowed any familiarity or involvement with Dear. But that did not prevent several protesters from turning up outside the Colorado Springs clinic on opening day, holding signs and calling out to patients as they entered the campus, Cowart said.

Washington Post