Fontana City Council meetings seemed ordinary. With little discussion, council members unanimously voted last summer to halt certain building permits in parts of downtown and allow only entertainment-related development to boost the local economy.

But one project proposed in that part of San Bernardino County and then blocked by a new emergency ordinance stood out: a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Republican Mayor Acquanetta Warren and city council members expressed concerns about parking and increased sales tax revenue, not their stance on abortion, but the new zoning rules and subsequent denial of the clinics sparked protests, a lawsuit and led to state legislation.

invoice A bill expected to be considered by the California Legislature this month aims to make it easier to set up reproductive health clinics, and the debate over the bill comes as out-of-state abortion seekers travel to California for treatment following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down federal abortion protections.

Abortion rights advocates point to Fontana as an example of how California's progressive abortion access laws, the strongest in the country, can be undermined by local opposition. Plans to build abortion clinics have also been blocked by local officials. Visalia In Beverly Hills, some opponents cited zoning and permitting concerns.

House Bill 2085, by Rep. Rebecca Bauer Kahan (D-Orinda), would streamline the process for building community health clinics and exempt the clinics from parts of the California Environmental Quality Act, a landmark development law that has long been criticized as something that could be misused to block construction.

If approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom, the bill would allow reproductive health clinics to be built anywhere certain other medical offices, retail stores and parking are allowed, without having to clear the hurdles required for other development projects.

While the bill pertains to all local clinics, Bauer Kahan said in a statement Tuesday that it is abortion providers who are unfairly turned away without justification, and that “streamlining the opening of these clinics in medical deserts is an important step in closing California's remaining reproductive health care gaps.”

“Our state cannot promise abortion rights on the one hand and deny access to abortion on the other,” she said.

But it's unclear whether the zoning bill will be able to stave off public pressure in some California communities, as abortion Holocaust survivors and other activist groups have stepped up their protests against construction plans.

“Planned Parenthood is not medicine. They call it a health clinic. It's a murder factory,” Edgar Alvarez, a member of Abortion Holocaust Survivors, said outside Fontana City Hall last month. “Abortion is murder and we must act accordingly.”

The group recently successfully opposed an abortion clinic in Beverly Hills, where the city is currently facing a lawsuit from the abortion provider DuPont Clinic, which planned to open there last year, alleging that city officials listened to its relentless critics and helped kill the plan, a charge the city denies.

The Fontana City Council reaffirmed its decision to stop the Planned Parenthood construction at its meeting last month, voting 4-1 to extend the building ban for another year. More than 40 people, some of them from out of town, lined up to speak for or against abortion rights. A Planned Parenthood-sponsored plane flew overhead, waving a bright pink banner that read, “Fontana Deserves Quality Healthcare.”

And yet, city council members avoided uttering the word “abortion” at all.

“This ordinance is not unlawful, nor is it intended to block the construction of a Planned Parenthood health center. Rather, it is part of a broader, thoughtful community planning effort to spur economic development throughout our city and contribute to the revitalization of downtown Fontana,” Mayor Warren said at the July 23 meeting.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties has filed a lawsuit against the city of Fontana, arguing that the construction moratorium is unconstitutional because it prohibits access to abortion and contraception, rights enshrined in the California Constitution by voters in 2022.

“The City cannot do indirectly what it cannot do directly,” the lawsuit states.

Ramona Thomas, general counsel for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, said Fontana leaders were “putting their own political agenda above the needs of their community,” noting that in addition to abortions, the organization provides other health services including cancer screenings, breast exams and STD testing.

Planned Parenthood said it provided $3 million worth of services to low-income patients in Orange and San Bernardino counties in 2023, totaling 260,000 medical visits.

“The city is just making it harder to get an abortion. They're making it take longer. They're making it inconvenient,” Thomas said of accessing abortions. “The city is just increasing the burden and the risk and the difficulty that people have to face trying to get the care that they so desperately need.”

There are 115 Planned Parenthood sites in the state, plus a few free-standing clinics, but 40 percent of California counties have no abortion clinics.

Bauer-Kahan's bill raises questions about local autonomy in a vast and diverse state and could raise concerns about the power cities and counties have over development in their neighborhoods.

It also poses a test for Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, who has argued on several occasions that local discretion is a key element of democracy but at other times has intervened in city and county issues to overturn Republican-leaning local decisions that test California's liberal policies, including LGBTQ+ school policies.

The League of California Cities supports the bill, but only if it is amended to allow local governments more flexibility on factors such as distancing requirements between medical clinics and other facilities to “ensure compatible uses.”

Rob Poysers, president of the California Council of Governments, a nonprofit group that focuses on local policy, said state overreach and a “one-size-fits-all” approach are all too common.

Poysers, a Republican member of the Madera County Board of Supervisors who was endorsed by the California Pro-Life Council PAC during his 2018 run for state Senate, said the issue isn't about abortion but about respecting the community's voice.

“If Sacramento was run by Republicans, I wouldn't want to see them come in and forcefully enforce at the local level,” he said. “Any time they step in for a specific purpose like this, it's an act of violence. It's really disturbing.”