A fleet of billboards popped up around Beverly Hills and Los Angeles in recent weeks declaring, “Los Angeles should be SAFE for abortion seekers.” And here in the sunny, so-called safe-haven of Los Angeles, you’d think that abortion would be safe. But for the abortion care providers at DuPont Clinic and the patients they seek to serve, this has not been the case.
DuPont rented space in a building located in Beverly Hills, only to be forced out—after investing millions of dollars into renovations—by one of the largest landlords in LA County and the city of Beverly Hills itself last year. The city and landlord appear to have capitulated to pressure from outside anti-abortion extremists.
Abortion advocates in Los Angeles and across the country are fighting back. The Los Angeles Abortion Support Collective (LAASC), a volunteer-run collective of abortion doulas providing comprehensive and inclusive support for abortion seekers, partnered with the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) to organize the current billboard and public education campaign. NIRH and LAASC also created sidewalk decals, and ran a mobile billboard across Los Angeles to encourage abortion seekers and the city to “fight back against attempts to shut down DuPont Clinic.”
The ads also link to a petition calling out the actions of the City of Beverly Hills, declaring that anti-abortion harassment must not be permitted in Los Angeles, and pushing for the opening of DuPont Clinic.
“We’re supporting DuPont [Clinic] because we need abortion care later in pregnancy in Los Angeles,” says doula and organizer at LAASC, Maddie Alpert McCarthy, “And all abortion needs to be protected in our city.”
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