To the editor: I’m absolutely appalled to read that a full-spectrum abortion care clinic has been driven out of Beverly Hills. As Angelenos, and as Californians, we should be ashamed. How can we be considered a sanctuary state when we won’t fight extremists in our own backyard? Any one of us with a uterus and of reproductive age could end up needing a clinic just like this. All it would take is a severe pregnancy complication or a change in our health. How would we feel if we couldn’t access it?
There are few clinics that provide this kind of needed healthcare in the country. We could have had the next one here in “blue” Los Angeles. Instead local politicians — most of whom proudly boast their pro-choice bona fides — caved to terror. Shame, shame, shame.
Jessica Craven, Los Angeles
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To the editor: As a longtime resident of Beverly Hills and a board-certified OB-GYN, I’m outraged not only at actions of the Beverly Hills city officials who, in total disregard of the state Constitution, acceded to the demands of an extremist antiabortion group, but also at the city’s use of the police to help carry out this campaign against women’s rights.
We must protect ourselves against the extremists who want to unlawfully control women’s bodies, and we must further prevent our over-armed and overfunded police from aiding in this attack.
Michael S. Broder, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: Thank you for the article about the “four yentas” who took on the city of Beverly Hills in their fight to preserve women’s reproductive rights against the assault of the anti-choice activists. I was appalled at the conduct of the city officials who caved under pressure to threats of civic and economic disruption made by a group of outsiders. This group came to Beverly Hills for the specific purpose of preventing the DuPont Clinic from operating a legal business in a building that already housed one such clinic.
Shame on the building owner, too. The fact that the city gave the group of outsiders an immediate audience and capitulated to its demands, while denying access to the clinic’s representatives, who were actual tenants in the city, is offensive.
Judith Marcus, Pacific Palisades
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To the editor: In my youth (late 1960s-70s), talk about birth control centered on contraception, not post-conception. In spite of the advances in medical science pertaining to pregnancy management and contraceptive options, many couples today choose chemical abortion as their method of birth control.
The article states that 5 million women have used abortion pills since the FDA approved the pills 20 years ago. As a male, I can only imagine the deep heartache a couple must go through when they decide to terminate a fetus. Or the regret that inspires a woman to seek Dr. Delgado and his abortion intervention of progesterone injections.
Nobody is perfect and untimely things happen. But reasonable measures if taken should lessen the chance that these painful decisions would have to be made. Morality and conscience should be apolitical and be present in all people. Having the right to do something does not make it the right thing to do.
James Sipin, San Luis Rey