Holocaust Museum Los Angeles is one building that would be protected under the county’s new “bubble zone” law. (Beverly Press/Park Labrea News file photo)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion on Aug. 6 that created a “bubble zone” for individuals seeking access to health care centers, schools and houses of worship. The policy, modeled after a similar ordinance in Colorado, is meant to safeguard people so they can safely enter and exit an establishment that might be subject to protestors.

“Los Angeles County has a responsibility to ensure our community members can safely receive medical care, practice their faith or access their schools,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Lindsey Horvath, 3rd District, who authored the motion. “Even here in Los Angeles County, we have seen how intimidation is used to prevent community members from entering facilities to receive essential services – bubble zones are how we meaningfully protect personal safety.”

“It’s always great to see expanded and enhanced protections for patients, health care providers, students and places of worship,” Beverly Hills for Choice founder Andrea Grossman said. “But as we’ve seen in Beverly Hills, a handful of extremists can show up and make noise and threats, and before you know it, a legal health clinic can shutter before it has a chance to open.”

Thirty years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act into law, which was intended to provide similar protections. The law prohibited physical force, threat of force or intentional damage to reproductive centers and houses of worship. States, counties and cities have, in the years since, enacted extensions to the law. Other municipalities have gone a different direction.

“Cities who object to existing legal protections … have managed work-arounds to avoid clinics from opening and providing care,” Grossman said.

The new county law, like its Colorado model, makes it a misdemeanor to obstruct entry or exit from facilities, as well as to distribute paraphernalia without consent within eight feet or counsel anyone within 100 feet of a facility. Additionally, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been instructed to inform and train personnel on the new ordinance. The Chief Executive Office was directed to conduct a forum to educate the 88 cities within the county.

The goal, according to Horvath’s office, “is to have localities bring forward their own bubble zone local ordinances.”

Protests have occurred outside synagogues and other houses of worship since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October. Horvath noted that many Jewish and Islamic constituents have expressed that they feel unsafe.

During the Aug. 6 Board of Supervisors meeting, one community member spoke against the motion at the meeting.

“Buffer zones are designed to put me in jail, and they take away the right for pregnant women to hear their options,” Teresa Saydah said. “I am one of the pro-life volunteers who stand outside abortion centers. I offer a brochure on free service as I say, ‘If you know anyone’s who’s pregnant, here are some free resources. I would love to help you.’ For that, I would be put in jail. Buffer zones also limit the ability for pregnant women to have a compassionate conversation about their options, and it denies them information on resources available to assist them at pregnancy help centers and in their community.”

Celinda Vasquez, a representative from Planned Parenthood, thanked the board for building upon “creating L.A. County as a safe haven and further protecting the patients and the workforce that provides basic health care every single day to your county residents.”

“We have seen a terrible, terrible increase in threats – safety threats – to the people who are simply accessing basic health care,” Vasquez said. “And in a post-Dobbs world, your actions [will] build again upon the safe haven.”