Virginia Board of Health Once Again Puts Politics Ahead of Women’s Health
April 12, 2013
Today, I issued the following statement on the Virginia Board of Health’s approval of the state’s abortion clinic restrictions:
Once again, the Virginia Board of Health has chosen to put politics ahead of women’s health.
The regulations approved in Virginia today single out women’s health care centers that provide outpatient first trimester abortion care by requiring facilities to meet the building requirements of newly constructed hospitals. There is no evidence that unnecessary regulations like these do anything to improve patient safety. Abortion has an outstanding safety record: fewer than 0.3% of abortion patients experience a complication that requires hospitalization, and more than 90% of all abortions in the United States are provided in outpatient facilities.
Abortion providers in Virginia are already highly regulated and comply with a variety of strict federal and state regulations. These unnecessary building requirements have been denounced by the Virginia medical community and the majority of Virginia residents.
We are extremely disappointed that the Virginia Board of Health has succumbed to political pressure and once again placed political considerations ahead of women’s health and well-being. These regulations are not about ensuring that abortion care is “safe.” They are about ensuring that abortion care is unavailable in Virginia.