Virginia Board of Health Votes to Amend Regulations Closing the State’s Clinics

[niyad]

Virginia Board of Health Votes to Amend Regulations Closing the State’s Clinics




In a victory for Virginia women, the Virginia Board of Health yesterday voted 13-2 to amend politically motivated, medically unnecessary TRAP regulations which have already caused women’s clinics in the state to close and threatened to shutter several more.

Dozens of women’s health supporters, including the Feminist Majority Foundation, lined up at as early as 6 AM to make public comments against Virginia TRAP (Targeted Regulations against Abortion Providers) regulations. Several medical professionals, legal experts, and impacted women testified, calling on the Board to approve an October 2014 recommendation made by Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Marissa Levine to amend the restrictive regulations, which she called “arbitrary” and “marked by political interference.”

“This is a truly important first step towards ensuring that safe, trusted women’s health centers can remain open and continue serving their patients with the critical medical care they need,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and co-chair of the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health, which helped organize supporters for the hearing.

The Virginia Board of Health approved the existing regulations in 2013 under pressure from anti-choice, former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. The rules require clinics to have the same physical architectural standards as newly built hospitals. The Board of Health had initially exempted existing clinics from the rules, but reversed itself after Cuccinelli, who unsuccessfully ran for Virginia governor in 2013, threatened Board members with the denial of state legal counsel.

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/12/05/virginia-board-of-health-votes-to-amend-regulations-closing-the-states-clinics/