Proposed Beverly Hills clinic faces challenges opening
Dupont Clinic can't open because antiabortion activists have influenced city officials
Beverly Hills is generally a pro-choice area, but a proposed abortion clinic has been thwarted despite the protests of several reproductive rights activists in the area.
At the heart of the debate is the Dupont Clinic, which signed a lease in the community in 2022. The lease was rescinded within the following year. An article in the Los Angeles Times and subsequent coverage caused activists to form Beverly Hills for Choice, an abortion rights group that lobbied for more community support.
The story begins in April 2023. At a city council meeting, Felicia Novak, Shiva Bagheri, and Tasha Barker, head of the Stop DuPont antiabortion group, made public comments demanding the city prevent the clinic from opening. Barker specifically suggested that the city hold on to the permits.
The clinic would offer abortions past 26 weeks. That was something that Barker mentioned as a reason why the clinic shouldn’t open in emails with the city.
Barker then emailed Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold, councilmember Lili Bosse, and councilmember Sharona Nazarian. Nazarian replied and agreed to a meeting, coordinating with Nancy Hunt-Coffey and city attorney Larry Wiener. They settled on a meeting date of mid-May.
Later that month, the DuPont Clinic’s architects could not pick up the permits from the Community Development Department. They were told that City Attorney Larry Wiener had put them on hold.
Dr. Russo directly emailed the Beverly Hills City Council to request that the permits be released. Shortly after, the permits were. During April, the city of Beverly Hills reached out to the building’s owner, a management company named Douglas Emmett.
Assistant City Manager Ryan Gohlich requested a meeting with representatives from Douglas Emmett, the City of Beverly Hills, and Chief of Beverly Hills Police Department, Mark Stainbrook. The city did not include any members of the DuPont Clinic.
In July, Barker contacted City Council members Sharona Nazarian and Larry Wiener to thank them and make additional demands of the city, including asking for more information about the lease rescission and asking Sharona for additional ordinances to affirm the city’s antiabortion stance.
In May and June, Beverly Hills officials began interacting more directly with representatives from management company Douglas Emmett and the DuPont Clinic. In mid-May, the city requested a meeting with their representatives.
In mid-May, members of the police department wrote a letter intended to be distributed to all the tenants at 8920 Wilshire Blvd, advising that an abortion clinic will be opening in the building and that, as a result, the location may experience more protests.
The lease was rescinded after safety concerns arose among the tenants. The Dupont Clinic owners met with the National Abortion Federation and Beverly Hills Police Department to address them last year. The building manager for the location of the clinic expressed concerns about antiabortion harassment in July.
The story has been featured in several publications, including a good write-up in CalMatters that showed this problem wasn’t isolated to Beverly Hills. Other communities have done the same thing to proposed abortion clinics in states where the procedure is legal.
I attached a series of emails weaned from an open records request.
