In the latest development in the Beverly Hills abortion clinic matter, two pro-choice advocacy organizations have launched a billboard campaign to fight for DuPont Clinic’s right to open in the city.
The LA Abortion Support Collective and the National Institute for Reproductive Health have sponsored five billboards urging people to sign a petition calling on Beverly Hills to uphold its commitment to ensuring a safe place for abortion seekers and providers. Due to city regulations, the billboards cannot be placed in Beverly Hills and are instead scattered across Los Angeles.
“The city is already home to medical offices that offer reproductive health services and has been very clear on its position of strongly supporting a person’s right to choose. The decision to rescind DuPont Clinic’s lease was not made by the city of Beverly Hills,” Public Information Officer Lauren Santillana told the Courier in response to the campaign.
DuPont Clinic was slated to open on Wilshire Boulevard in October 2023, but its landlord Douglas Emmett rescinded its lease in June 2023. The clinic has since filed lawsuits against Douglas Emmett and the city accusing them of colluding with anti-abortion activists to try and prevent the clinic from opening—allegations both parties deny.
“Elected leaders in California cannot claim to be pro-abortion champions while remaining silent and complicit when abortion clinics are blocked from opening,” said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, VP of communications at the National Institute for Reproductive Health in a statement. “We call on the city of Beverly Hills to expand access to Californians and any person seeking care in this critical access state.”
The billboards will be located in Pico-Robertson, Mid-Wilshire, Whitter, Sun Valley and West Covina. In addition, the campaign includes a week-long mobile billboard truck, sidewalk decals and digital advertisements urging people to take action to support DuPont and protect abortion access.
DuPont Clinic is a Washington D.C.-based reproductive healthcare provider that specializes in the provision of late-term abortions. This, in particular, drew the ire of anti-abortion activist group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, which in late 2022 began holding regular protests outside of the proposed clinic location and in early 2023 began urging City Council members to deny DuPont permits to operate.
In its lawsuit against the city, DuPont Clinic alleges that “the city and Douglas Emmett have colluded together in the face of political pressure of the anti-abortion community instead of protecting DuPont and the right to abortion enshrined in the California Constitution.”
These are claims both the city and Douglas Emmett deny, but the pro-choice organizations believe.
“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, member of the Los Angeles Abortion Support Collective, in a statement. “Extremist behavior spreads misinformation about abortion, especially abortion later in pregnancy, and cannot be tolerated by our elected officials or police in LA, Beverly Hills or anywhere.”
The billboard campaign is set to run through early February. The lawsuits filed against the city and Douglas Emmett are pending judgment in the Superior Court of Los Angeles.
