LOS ANGELES – City Attorney Mike Feuer today announced his office is aggressively enforcing a recently enacted state law, in coordination with the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, regarding family planning services. The law requires pregnancy clinics to inform their clients of public free and low-cost family planning services, contraception and abortion services and the legal consequences of non-compliance.
“Women need timely, accurate and complete information to make the best family planning decisions they can,” said Feuer. “This important new law protects women’s reproductive rights. My office will vigorously enforce it.”
“If a pregnancy center keeps information from a woman, or pressures her into making ill-informed decisions about her pregnancy, they are creating dangerous delays and road blocks,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez. “I stand with City Attorney Feuer, and support his efforts to hold these places accountable.”
Letters have been sent to identified reproductive health facilities in Los Angeles informing them of their legal obligations under Assembly Bill 775, the Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency Act (Reproductive FACT Act). The Reproductive FACT Act was intended to assure women are fully informed of the existence of public programs that provide free or low-cost access to family planning services, prenatal care and abortions. According to the law, all facilities that offer family planning or pregnancy-related services, including pregnancy options counseling, are required to post and disseminate information to clients, on site at the time of check-in or arrival, information on services provided as well as alternative accommodations that provide contraception, prenatal care and abortion for eligible women. Facilities offering family planning counseling which are not licensed as medical facilities must disclose that fact to each of their clients.
Failure to disclose this information to clients is punishable by a civil penalty of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense. All investigations will be conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs and subsequent referrals will be handled by Feuer’s office.
