Planned Parenthood is suing a California city to force the local government to allow it to build an abortion clinic there, citing the state’s new “constitutional right” to the procedure.
The move from the abortion provider and activism organization comes as the city of Fontana in San Bernardino County passed a September “urgency ordinance” blocking new construction in the city center for 10 months.
The Fontana lawsuit could set a precedent for the extent of legal authority provided by state ballot initiatives aimed at expanding the scope of legal abortion, a movement taking hold across the country in an effort to usurp legislative action restricting the procedure.
“California is an example of the abortion industry’s endgame with ballot measures,” Kelsey Pritchard, SBA Pro-Life America director of state public affairs, told the Washington Examiner. “When a right for unlimited abortion is added to a state’s constitution, Planned Parenthood can increase their financial gains by suing to eliminate all health regulations, end parental rights, and build new abortion facilities anytime, anywhere regardless of the will of the people in their own neighborhoods.”
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties filed a complaint Monday alleging the move was a deliberate effort to block the construction of an abortion clinic.
“We did not want to be among the first organizations to file a lawsuit alleging violation of Californians’ constitutional rights under Proposition 1,” the Planned Parenthood regional president and CEO, Jon Dunn, said in a statement. “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….”
From the Washington Examiner
Planned Parenthood is using bully tactics.
I think they have a strong legal basis for their argument. If abortion is a state constitutional right, then it would seem that no municipality may prohibit a business from providing services that exercise that constitutional right. In this case, the state constitution trumps local law.
It’s not similar to cannabis dispensaries, which are permitted by state law but not the subject of a state constitutional right. Municipalities may prohibit cannabis dispensaries from selling cannabis, or they may permit them.
This is merely a legal argument, not a moral one. If I were a judge, assessing the matter objectively, I’d side with Planned Parenthood even though I oppose legal abortion.