FONTANA, CA — A lawsuit, alleging an Inland Empire city is illegally blocking the construction of a Planned Parenthood facility, continues winding its way through the legal system.
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Meanwhile, supporters of the nonprofit took to the city’s streets Tuesday with a message: “Let Planned Parenthood In Fontana.”
The supporters tied 2,000 pink ribbons on a fence around the site of the stalled Planned Parenthood project at 9699 Sierra Avenue in Fontana. Each ribbon represented a Fontana patient who could have received care this month but didn’t due to the city’s construction moratorium at the site, according to Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
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A large poster with the same message — “2,000 Patients Denied Health Care This Month Due To City Council” — was attached to the fence. A mobile billboard with the same text cruised the city on Tuesday.
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties also launched a website, banoffabortion.org, supporting the mission in Fontana.
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Tuesday’s boots-on-the-ground campaign follows what PPOSBC claims is unjust treatment by the city of Fontana.
The relationship between PPOSBC and the city seems to have begun like any other. In 2022, PPOSBC began filing paperwork with the city to build a health center at the northeast corner of Sierra and San Bernardino avenues, according to the nonprofit.
“For 12 months afterward, PPOSBC adhered to all requirements to obtain a construction permit. On July 12, 2023, PPOSBC received verbal approval from Fontana’s Director of Planning, and then a verbal approval from the city’s engineering department regarding a driveway issue that had been resolved,” according to PPOSBC.
But on July 25, 2023, PPOSBC received notice there was a construction moratorium where the health center was planned, according to the organization.
An anti-abortion rally held a month earlier at the construction site helped alter the city’s course, according to PPOSBC. The construction moratorium “conveniently singled out Planned Parenthood and spared other businesses,” the nonprofit said.
In December, PPOSBC filed the lawsuit against Fontana claiming the city was violating California’s Proposition 1. Passed by California voters in Nov. 2022, Prop. 1 amended the state’s Constitution to explicitly grant the right to abortion and contraceptives.
“By blocking Planned Parenthood, Fontana is prohibiting patients from accessing their constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and contraceptives through Prop 1,” the nonprofit stated.
On Tuesday, Fontana City Council met in closed session about the lawsuit. The next court hearing in the case is set for March 5.
The PPOSBC lawsuit is one of the first Prop. 1 challenges brought against a local government.
PPOSBC argues the Fontana community is medically underserved, with many residents either uninsured or on Medi-Cal, and San Bernardino County residents have higher average rates of sexually transmitted infections, including chlamydia and gonorrhea, than the rest of the state or the nation.
“All of this indicates a growing need for quality, comprehensive, affordable reproductive healthcare in Fontana,” according to PPOSBC.
PPOSBC President and CEO Jon Dunn issued a statement in December following the lawsuit filing.
“We did not want to be among the first organizations to file a lawsuit alleging violation of Californians’ constitutional rights under Proposition 1. However, we have chosen to defend the rights of our community members against the city of Fontana, due to their deliberate actions to actively deny their community access to healthcare services,” Dunn said. “Instead of working in their citizens’ interests, they wasted taxpayer resources on issuing an unconstitutional, procedurally improper moratorium on new construction that exclusively blocks PPOSBC’s health center, despite a clear need in their community for vital health services including cancer screening, STI testing and treatment, and contraception.”
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