The Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties affiliate filed a formal complaint against the city of Fontana alleging that the city is blocking abortion access, according to multiple reports.
The suit filed Monday in San Bernardino Superior Court “requests that a construction moratorium be lifted to allow progress on a Planned Parenthood health center,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The complaint alleges that the moratorium violates residents’ constitutional rights to access reproductive health. California voters decided to make abortion and contraception accessible through the approval of Proposition 1 in 2022.
In 2022, Planned Parenthood signed a lease for a future health center at 9699 Sierra Ave., the site of a former bank. Jon Dunn, the affiliate’s president and chief executive officer, told the Times that the property was “well-suited for the health center as it had already been zoned for medical facilities and was near several other medical offices.”
Over the year, Planned Parenthood officials worked with city officials to tailor project plans to meet the city’s requirements. They even received verbal approval from the city’s planning director on July 12.
The Fontana City Council later voted for a 45-day constitution moratorium covering the area where the health center would be built. The moratorium was on Sept. 5 by 10 months and 15 days but excluded entertainment-service projects.
The suit also alleges that project exemptions were made if the City Council members had a financial stake.
Regarding the complaint, a city official told KTLA that they “have not had the opportunity to review the complaint in question. As such, we are not in a position to provide any comments or statements at this time.”
Dunn told the Times that the “proposition’s passage “didn’t change much from the standpoint of our delivering care.”
“What it did do, in our opinion, is establish a right to those services in a substantial way — and that is what we believe that the city of Fontana is violating by denying us the right to open a health center there,” he said.
