The Brief

A high-stakes legal battle last year over a widely used abortion pill prompted California to stockpile one of two drugs used in medication abortions.

Last April, state leaders bought more than 250,000 pills of misoprostol. The Governor’s Office said creating the reserve would continue to enable access to medication abortions in California in case the other key drug was restricted by the courts.

But now, with about a year left on its shelf life, California’s stockpile of misoprostol needs to be used before it expires.

That’s why state health officials expedited distribution of the medication, shipping them to California providers this week. Some may go to California’s 33 public university health clinics, which are required by state law to provide medication abortions to students. A recent LAist investigation found that over the past year, many of the state’s public universities had failed to let students know the service was available.

The state estimates the stockpile is enough for about 12,000 doses. The move will help stock shelves before supply could tighten this spring, when the U.S. Supreme Court reenters the abortion debate.

Why did California buy the pills? 

Last April, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state spent $100,000 to buy the medication after access to another abortion drug, mifepristone, was put in legal jeopardy by a Texas district judge’s ruling.

The court sided with anti-abortion rights groups that sued the Food and Drug Administration over its approval of the abortion pill, mifepristone. The judge issued a ruling that would invalidate the drug's approval nationwide. However, a district judge in Washington state issued a contrary ruling on the same day, preserving access to the pills in certain states.

The legal back and forth put medication abortion in the national spotlight, and blue state governors, including Newsom, announced they would stockpile pills in anticipation of further restrictions as the case escalated to a federal appeals court.

Expecting demand to soar, California providers said they’d switch to misoprostol-only abortions. Usually, medication abortions consist of a two-drug protocol used to end pregnancies in the first trimester but misoprostol can be used on its own — a method data show is slightly less effective at terminating a pregnancy than the combination regimen.

The Governor’s Office said the stockpile of misoprostol was aimed at “ensure[ing] that California remains a safe haven for safe, affordable, and accessible reproductive care.”

Mifepristone stayed on the market after the U.S. Supreme Court put the lower court rulings on hold. Because the preferred two-drug regime remained available, the state’s stockpile of misoprostol sat virtually unused. Now, the countdown is on to distribute the pills before their two-year shelf life runs out.

Rather than let the medication expire in about a year, California health officials ramped up distribution to providers, including health clinics in the California State University and University of California systems, prioritizing “providers that confirm an ability to distribute the supply quickly to those who need it,” according to the Governor’s Office.

Who will get the stockpiled drug? 

Ray Murillo, assistant vice chancellor of student affairs for the Cal State University system, said some of the campus student health clinics will likely receive some of the free misoprostol from the stockpile. The savings will be passed on to students.

“That will contribute to some campuses being able to offer the medication for free,” Murillo said.

California requires all 33 public university campus clinics to provide medication abortions to students who want them.

Even though the providers can get the medication for free, patients can still be charged.

Supreme Court to hear abortion pill case

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to review the lower court’s decision that would make mifepristone, the commonly used abortion pill, less accessible. If the Supreme Court rules this summer to restrict use of the drug, that could make demand for California’s stockpile surge as providers look for a safe alternative.

The Governor’s Office says the stockpile can be replenished if needed. The state can procure “up to 2 million pills” of misoprostol at a “low price” from the manufacturer.

New York also stockpiled the pills, while Massachusetts and Washington state chose to stockpile mifepristone, the drug at the center of the legal battle.

Beyond the Rose Bowl and historic bungalows, Pasadena has stranger tales to tell. David Kalbeitzer has been seeking out those stories where rocket science meets the occult and ghosts haunt the city’s grandest buildings.

For Kalbeitzer, a Disney executive who investigates the paranormal in his free time, his fascination with the city’s mysterious side started when he bought a Victorian north of Old Town.

He sensed a spirit at the open house a dozen years ago and took it as a reason to move his family to Pasadena. Then he started learning the city’s history.

David Kalbeitzer, a paranormal investigator from Pasadena, is giving a talk about the city's strange history Saturday night in Old Town.

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Courtesy of David Kalbeitzer

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“I realized, ‘Oh, this place called us just as much as we were looking for it,’” he said.

On Saturday night, he’s sharing the lore he’s collected at Mesmer Mesmer an Old Town shop and event space. While the event is full, there’s a waitlist, and more talks featuring Kalbeitzer are in the works.

A city of ghost stories 

Ask Kalbeitzer about haunted Pasadena, and the list stretches from alleyways to the Colorado Street Bridge to Castle Green, the turreted former hotel overlooking Central Park.

“The Pasadena Playhouse theater is, you know, very haunted,” he added.

He says theatergoers have reported hearing disembodied voices.

Theatergoers over the years have described hearing voices and seeing apparitions at the Pasadena Playhouse.

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Jeff Lorch

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Courtesy of Pasadena Playhouse

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“And you look, and there’s no one there, or apparitions that have been seen sort of standing in the corner, and then you walk up, and they kind of disappear like shadowy figures,” he said.

As for the spirit that helped draw him to his current Pasadena home?

Kalbeitzer says she’s still around — and his psychic friend Michael Kouri shared her name: Dolores.

“It’s actually haunted by a very kind ghost that looks out for the house, protects my family and has been able to activate our alarm,” he said.

Having a Dolores in the house might send some people running, but Kalbeitzer said he grew up in a haunted house in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

And when his family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, a teenage Kalbeitzer started seeking out places known for paranormal activity.

Rocket science, ritual magic and mind-reading

Having lived in different neighborhoods in L.A., Kalbeitzer says there’s something uniquely otherworldly about Pasadena — and it goes beyond ghost stories.

He said the city has an energy that draws people exploring the unknown, perhaps most famously Jack Parsons.

The rocket pioneer who helped launch the Jet Propulsion Laboratory also practiced ritual magic at his Pasadena home with the likes of L. Ron Hubbard before he founded Scientology.

“Many people call it the occult," Kalbeitzer said. "I don’t know that I fully subscribe to that, but there is spiritualism and occult mixed in there."

Then there was Upton Sinclair, the muckraking author of The Jungle, whose interests while living in Pasadena extended to telepathy and séances.

Upton Sinclair, pictured with his wife Mary Craig Sinclair in 1935, several years after he published a book examining her reported telepathy.

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Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons

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In 1930, Sinclair published Mental Radio, a book about experiments in mind-reading. Albert Einstein provided a preface. Yes, that Einstein, who would spend the following winter at Caltech expanding on the theories of relativity and cosmology.

“It’s the craziest mixture of things that were happening at that time and all of it at the same time,” Kalbeitzer said.

A presence in the shop 

The event couldn’t have found a more appropriate venue.

Since opening five months ago in Old Town, Mesmer Mesmer has embraced the dark and mysterious, offering tarot and crystal readings and hosting events on subjects such as hip-hop’s relationship with ghosts.

Tyke O'Brien opened her shop Mesmer Mesmer earlier this year to create a third space and offer books and esoterica alongside clothing.

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Tyke O'Brien

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At that event, a medium told owner Tyke O’Brien she could sense a presence in the shop, which formerly housed a bridal store.

“She goes, ‘Do you ever feel it?’ And I’m like, ‘I am such a bummer,” O’Brien recounted. “I wish I could say yes."

The same can be said for this writer who’s lived and worked in and around Pasadena for years without so much as a brush with the otherworldly.

Kalbeitzer, on the other hand, reports supernatural encounters all around town.

“Everyone has the ability to have those experiences," he said. "But I do think how you see yourself in the world has a lot more to do with it, and whether you want to have those experiences."

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027. 

At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.

Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

Installation of the green metal fence around the park’s perimeter is expected to begin in November and take about a year. A second phase, adding decorative elements to the fence, is planned for fall and winter 2027. Officials said the schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

The park is expected to remain open during construction.

Capt. Ben Fernandes with the LAPD’s Rampart Division said the fence would create a barrier along Alvarado Street and other areas where officers have seen people using narcotics. That would allow police to focus more of their enforcement efforts inside the park, he said.

“So if people are going deeper into the park to use, that’ll make it easier for us to go in and do enforcement on them and arrest them for that use,” Fernandes said. 

MacArthur Park will close every night once an 8-foot-tall fence goes up around the green space, with Los Angeles police officers sweeping the park for encampments and people sleeping there before the gates shut. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved the plan Thursday.

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LA Recreation and Parks

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“I’ve been an officer for 29 years, and I’ve always known I can go buy drugs there, and I did as a narcotics officer. So what I’m saying is, we are trying to make it not convenient,” he added. 

Fernandes also said the city plans to enhance the park’s existing camera network. LAPD officers and Los Angeles Park Rangers will be able to monitor the cameras from their respective stations, he said. City officials are still evaluating whether additional cameras will be needed to address blind spots in the park after construction is complete.

Ariana Walker, who visits MacArthur Park every Saturday with a group of friends who pool their own resources to distribute food and hygiene kits, questioned whether the city had shown that the fence would improve safety and how much it would cost to maintain.

“The fence is a $2.3 million fence at the base level,” she said. “And they haven’t given us any indication of how much more it’s going to cost for upkeep, to keep anybody safe. There’s no conclusive evidence that a fence is going to stop crime the way that they’re suggesting.”

The meeting grew tense when John Alle, a local property owner whose family owns the building that houses Langer’s Delicatessen across the street from the park, objected to having his comments read from a written comment card rather than speaking directly to officials. Alle has been a vocal critic of the city’s response to drug activity and public safety concerns around MacArthur Park.

He was allowed to comment during the meeting and said the city needs to take a tougher approach to drug use and sales around the park. 

“We see knife attacks at all hours of the day. It’s out of control. And it’s not gotten any better,” he said. “We want to bring it back to where it was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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Alle pointed to public events at the park, including an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration and a Labor Day weekend picnic hosted by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as positive developments for the space. But he added those events do not reflect conditions throughout the park.

Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers. 

Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call (310) 479-4727 for more information.

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