The Fontana Metropolis Council assembly appeared mundane. With little debate, council members final summer season unanimously voted to halt sure constructing permits in a stretch of downtown, permitting solely entertainment-related growth and citing a necessity to spice up the native economic system.
However one enterprise that was deliberate for that metropolis hall in San Bernardino County and subsequently blocked by the brand new emergency ordinance stood out: a Deliberate Parenthood clinic.
Whereas Republican Mayor Acquanetta Warren and council members voiced considerations about parking and producing extra gross sales tax revenues — not about their stances on abortion — their new zoning guidelines and subsequent rejection of the clinic have drawn protests, triggered a lawsuit and impressed state laws.
A invoice that California lawmakers are anticipated to contemplate this month goals to make it simpler to construct reproductive well being clinics. Debate over the laws comes as out-of-state abortion seekers journey to California for care after the U.S. Supreme Court docket choice putting down federal abortion protections.
Abortion rights advocates level to Fontana for instance of how native opposition can undermine California’s progressive abortion entry legal guidelines, that are among the many strongest within the nation. Plans to construct abortion clinics have additionally been hamstrung by native officers in Visalia and Beverly Hills, the place some opponents cited zoning and allowing considerations.
Meeting Invoice 2085 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) would streamline the development course of for neighborhood well being clinics and exempt them from elements of the California Environmental High quality Act — a landmark growth regulation that has lengthy been lambasted as a device that may be abused to dam building.
If the invoice is authorized by the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom, building of reproductive well being clinics can be permitted anyplace that sure different healthcare workplaces, retail shops and parking areas are allowed, with out having to clear hurdles required of different growth tasks.
Though the invoice pertains to all neighborhood clinics, Bauer-Kahan mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that it’s abortion suppliers which might be being disproportionately rejected with out justification and that “streamlining the opening of those clinics in healthcare deserts is a important step” to fill remaining reproductive healthcare gaps in California.
“Our state can’t promise abortion rights on the one hand however deny entry on the opposite,” she mentioned.
Nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not the zoning invoice can stave off the ability of public strain in some California communities, as activist teams such because the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust improve their efforts to protest building plans.
“Deliberate Parenthood shouldn’t be healthcare. They referred to as it a well being clinic. It’s a homicide mill,” Edgar Alvarez, a member of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust mentioned outdoors Fontana Metropolis Corridor final month. “Abortion is homicide and we have to act prefer it.”
The identical group not too long ago opposed an abortion clinic in Beverly Hills, efficiently halting building there. The town of Beverly Hills is now being sued by DuPont Clinic, an abortion supplier that deliberate to open there final yr, alleging that officers helped shut down building plans after listening to from relentless critics. The town has denied the allegations.
The Fontana Metropolis Council reaffirmed its choice to halt building of Deliberate Parenthood at a gathering final month, voting 4 to 1 to increase the constructing prohibition for one more yr. Greater than 40 individuals lined as much as communicate for and towards abortion rights — together with some from out of city — and a aircraft sponsored by Deliberate Parenthood flew overhead waving a sizzling pink banner that learn, “Fontana deserves high-quality well being care.”
Nonetheless, Metropolis Council members managed to keep away from saying the phrase “abortion” in any respect.
“The ordinance is neither unlawful nor focused towards blocking the development of a Deliberate Parenthood well being heart. Fairly, it’s a part of a broader, considerate neighborhood planning effort to advertise financial growth all through town and contribute in the direction of the revitalization of downtown Fontana,” Warren mentioned at a gathering July 23.
Deliberate Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties is suing town of Fontana, alleging the development moratorium is unconstitutional as a result of it prohibits entry to abortion and contraceptives, a proper enshrined within the California Structure by voters in 2022.
“The town could not do not directly what it can’t do straight,” the lawsuit states.
Ramona Thomas, common counsel for Deliberate Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties, mentioned Fontana leaders have “put their very own political agendas above the wants of the residents of their neighborhood,” mentioning that the group provides different healthcare along with abortions, together with most cancers screenings, breast exams and sexually transmitted illness testing.
Deliberate Parenthood mentioned it offered $3 million price of companies to low-income sufferers in Orange and San Bernardino counties in 2023, totaling 260,000 medical visits.
“The town’s simply making it tougher. They’re making it take longer. They’re making it much less handy,” Thomas mentioned about abortion entry. “They’re simply including to the burden and including to the chance and difficulties that these individuals need to face as they’re making an attempt to obtain the healthcare that they desperately want.”
Whereas there are 115 Deliberate Parenthood services statewide, along with some impartial clinics, 40% of California counties do not need an abortion clinic.
Bauer-Kahan’s invoice poses questions on native management in a large, various state and will draw considerations on the subject of the ability cities and counties have over growth of their neighborhoods.
It additionally poses a check for Newsom, a Democratic champion of abortion rights, who has in some situations heralded native discretion as a vital part of democracy and at different instances waded into metropolis and county affairs to override choices in Republican enclaves of the state that check California’s liberal insurance policies, together with faculty LGBTQ+ insurance policies.
The League of California Cities helps the invoice however solely whether it is amended to permit extra native flexibility over components similar to distance necessities between clinics and different services “to make sure appropriate use.”
Rob Poythress, president of the California Assn. of Councils of Governments, a nonprofit targeted on regional coverage, mentioned state overreach and a “one dimension suits all” strategy are all too frequent.
Poythress, a Republican member of the Madera County Board of Supervisors who was endorsed by the California ProLife Council PAC throughout his run for state Senate in 2018, mentioned the difficulty shouldn’t be about abortion however about respect for neighborhood enter.
“If Sacramento was managed by Republicans, I wouldn’t prefer to see them are available in and strong-arm on an area stage both,” he mentioned. “At any time when they soar in for a selected objective like this, it’s thuggery. It’s actually disturbing.”
