Fontana extends building ban blocking Planned Parenthood clinic
As originally published by the San Bernardino Sun on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
The Fontana City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday afternoon, July 23, to extend a building moratorium that will stall construction of a proposed Planned Parenthood clinic for another year.
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, meanwhile, is pursuing legal action against Fontana. In a lawsuit filed in December in San Bernardino Superior Court, the nonprofit accused Fontana of enacting a moratorium on new construction that exclusively blocks its proposed health center on Sierra Avenue.
Mayor Acquanetta Warren and Councilmembers Peter Garcia, John Roberts and Phillip Cothran voted to extend the moratorium an additional year. The ordinance was originally adopted on July 25, 2023, then extended to July 23, 2024. It will now remain in effect until July 23, 2025.
Councilmember Jesus Sandoval was the only member opposed to extending the moratorium.
“The ordinance is neither illegal nor targeted toward blocking the construction of the Planned Parenthood health center,” Warren read from a city statement at the meeting. “Rather, it is part of a broader, thoughtful community planning effort to promote economic development throughout the city and contribute toward the revitalization of downtown Fontana.”
The area controlled by the moratorium is one of the last remaining economic engines in Fontana, added Warren, and the city is trying to ensure whatever is built there is the right fit.
For months, Planned Parenthood leaders and supporters have appealed to the city to reverse the moratorium, staging public protests and speaking at council meetings.
“Today, the Fontana City Council has once again turned its back on the community by extending the ‘urgency moratorium’ on new construction for a year, effectively blocking Planned Parenthood from building a new health center,” Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties said in a news release following the council vote. “Not only is this a clear infringement on their citizens’ constitutional rights to access reproductive care, it’s obvious these efforts are not motivated out of concern for the health of their citizens.”
Californians approved Proposition 1 in 2022, amending the state Constitution to enshrine access to abortion and contraception throughout the state.
At the council meeting Tuesday, nearly 50 people spoke about the moratorium and Planned Parenthood.
Before the meeting, anti-abortion protesters stood outside Fontana City Hall holding up signs that they brought into the meeting. Warren asked those holding signs in the meeting to put them away.
Kathleen Jones, CEO for California Alliance of Pregnancy Care, said Tuesday that Planned Parenthood’s services related to abortion stand in direct contrast to health care.
“Health care is to preserve and restore health,” Jones said. “Never to act in contradiction to that.”
Ana Gonzalez, executive director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said she was at the meeting to represent more than 385 Fontana residents in full support of Planned Parenthood and the proposed clinic.
“We are here to say that 70% of Fontana residents clearly voted to codify access to abortion and reproductive rights under the constitution of California,” said Gonzalez. “And here we are (as a city), violating it.”
In its lawsuit against the city, Planned Parenthood alleges Fontana violated its citizens’ constitutional rights by denying them access to health care services that would be provided at the clinic.
The next hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Aug. 25.
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