As originally published on Politico on Thursday, January 11, 2024.
There would seem to be no place friendlier to abortion rights than Beverly Hills, where the City Council voted unanimously on a resolution supporting access to the procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Which is why billboards going up Thursday in the famously wealthy city are such a surprise.
“Los Angeles should be safe for abortion seekers,” the brightly colored signs read. “Fight back against attempts to shut down DuPont Clinic.”
What’s going on?
The message, paid for by the LA Abortion Support Collective and the National Institute for Reproductive Health, comes in response to the city council withholding permits for a clinic that would offer abortions beyond 24 weeks. That would inevitably draw protesters — and too much controversy for the affluent enclave.
It may seem unexpected in California — a state where people are so overwhelmingly in favor of abortion rights that voters enshrined access into the state constitution in 2022, also in response to the Supreme Court.
But maybe it’s fitting in a place where NIMBYism has long clashed with lofty impulses, especially when it comes to building more affordable housing.
Beverly Hills is not alone in its ambivalence.
In the Inland Empire city of Fontana, the construction of a new Planned Parenthood has been held up in endless permitting disputes with the city after it instituted a moratorium on construction. Planned new clinics in Visalia and El Centro have either been heavily delayed with red tape or abandoned altogether.
“Let Los Angeles serve as a cautionary tale: In a city and state with legal protections for abortion care, providers still cannot open the desperately needed clinics to provide the necessary abortion care later in pregnancy,” said Jess Fuselier, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Abortion Support Collective.
All this in a state whose governor has been a champion of abortion rights, even weighing in today on the decision by an Ohio grand jury not to prosecute a woman for her handling of a miscarriage at home. “The fact that she was dragged through this is appalling,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on X.
“It’s striking because here we are in bright blue, California, and I think the perception from other parts of the country is that we’re wildly supported here,” said Jon Dunn, the head of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, who has been trying to open up the new Fontana location. “The Governor has been a champion for us, as has our legislature, but municipality by municipality, it can be very different.”
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