Attorney General Cuccinelli: practicing medicine without a license?

By Staff

This weekend, we got more evidence that Virginia’s new regulations singling out abortion providers are about one thing only: a political agenda to eliminate access to safe, legal abortion in Virginia.

On Saturday, Larry O’Dell of the Associated Press released a story titled, “Some medical advisors question abortion rules.” The story focused on the medical professionals and educators who advised the Virginia Department of Health in developing targeted regulations on abortion providers following the passage of S.B. 924 earlier this year.

The point of the story was simple and clear: the regulations now on the governor’s desk awaiting his approval are drastically different than those recommended by a panel of medical professionals and originally drafted by the Department of  Health, in ways that make them excessively difficult for abortion providers to meet and would force many of them to close.

We’re wondering what happened. And we’re not the only ones. One of the medical professionals on the advisory panel expressed his confusion:

Dr. James E. Ferguson II, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Virginia…said the document adopted by the board in September went well beyond what the advisory panel recommended. “I don’t know where they got changed, but ultimately they were different, more stringent and more restrictive – and several of them, at least, unnecessary,” Ferguson said.

Those of us who were at the Board of Health meeting in September saw Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office hijack deliberations in order to make the regulations as far-reaching as possible.

The new article highlights some specific ways Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office worked to turn medical suggestions for targeted regulations that would have at least been related to medical science into an overreaching, ideologically-motivated attack on abortion access. Let’s take a look at a couple medical recommendations Cuccinelli’s office rejected:

Medical recommendation 1: Allow existing facilities to be “grandfathered” in to building requirements.

This would mean that, according to the AP article, existing offices “would not be held to standards that were not in place when they opened.” No other existing medical facilities in Virginia are required to be retrofitted to meet new construction codes.

Ken Cuccinelli’s view: “New strict building standards – which cover things like hallway widths and covered entrances – are mandated by state law.”

Medical advice: Rejected.

Medical recommendation 2: Limit regulations to offices providing surgical abortion and exempt offices that only provide medical abortion.

This would mean that offices offering medication abortion would not be subject to the same strict building requirements as an office providing surgery — a commonsense exception that would have excluded providers that do not even do surgical procedures from having to adhere to hospital-style regulations.

Ken Cuccinelli’s view: “State law makes no distinction between medical and surgical abortions so the board can’t either.”

Medical advice: Rejected

The bottom line: Attorney General Cuccinelli’s office continues overreaching to push these regulations to their most extreme possible form, disregarding sound medical science and the expertise of health professionals in his pursuit of a backdoor ban on access to abortion in Virginia.

If you haven’t yet, contact Governor McDonnell or write a  letter to the editor of your local paper to express your concern about anti-choice ideology trumping sound medical science and women’s healthcare needs in the crafting of these regulations.

Calling out the intention of new abortion regulations

We are just over one week out from the September 15 Board of Health meeting in which the Board will vote on new, draft regulations on women’s health centers in Virginia.

Since the Virginia Department of Health issued draft regulations a couple of weeks ago, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has been working hard as part of the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health to make sure women in Virginia have continued access to vital reproductive health care. (For an explanation of the regulatory process check out one of our recent blog posts.)

Now that the regulations are public, people are starting to recognize the detrimental effects the draft regulations could have for Virginia women.

This past weekend, the editorial board at The Washington Post called out the intent of the regulations:

“[I]t is hard to imagine why groups that say they are concerned about women’s health would oppose these standards,” the Virginia Catholic Conference said in a statement.

Actually, it’s not hard to imagine at all, because the standards are not really about safety. They are unjustifiably stringent and could force abortion facilities to shut their doors.

A couple of days later, The Virginian-Pilot editorial board had a similar reaction, noting

New regulations proposed for abortion clinics across Virginia would, indeed, tighten standards for patient safety and require a higher level of care.

They would increase the scope and depth of required record-keeping. They would also reduce Virginians’ access to first-trimester abortions.

The piece in The Virginian-Pilot goes on to challenge the supporters of new regulations:

Supporters’ claims that legislation requiring the new regulations was animated by concern for patient safety aren’t fooling anyone. If that were the motive, the law would have been aimed at raising the level of care at every outpatient surgical center across the state rather than simply those that perform five or more first-trimester abortions each month.

And earlier today, Delegate Ken Plum, D-Fairfax, weighed in on the proposed regulations:

At the same time that regulations to ensure that your water is safe to drink and that air pollution be cleaned up are being challenged as being anti-business and government intrusion, stiff regulations to protect women from unspecified health damages while reducing their access to a legal medical procedure are being advanced.

To learn more about how proposed regulations could harm the health of Virginia women, check out the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health.

And be sure to join us if you can at the September Board of Health meeting in Richmond as we ask the Board only to support new regulations based in medicine, not in dangerous politics.

Understanding the regulatory process

By Kerry

In case you missed it while preparing for Hurricane Irene, the Virginia Department of Health released its much anticipated draft emergency regulations last Friday for women’s health centers providing first-trimester abortions. As NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia executive director, Tarina Keene told Mother Jones earlier this week, the proposed regulations as currently drafted will impose unduly strict, burdensome facility requirements on women’s health centers performing at least five first-trimester abortions a month:

 ”It would be challenging for the majority of our facilities to continue offering first-trimester care,” Keene said. “These are designed to really cease first-trimester abortion services in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The regulations are the product of SB 924, which narrowly passed the state Senate and was signed into law by Governor McDonnell last March.

Understanding the process and timeline for these regulations is one of the most confusing aspects of this issue. When singling out women’s health in SB 924, anti-choice lawmakers in Virginia took advantage of a special “emergency regulations” process which enabled them to mandate that the new rules be implemented within 280 days. By utilizing this emergency procedure, the draft regulations can take effect while permanent regulations are still being formulated – a drawn-out process that can take over two years.

A major concern of this fast-track process is the fact that there will be very little time for the public and health care professionals to offer feedback on the regulations before the Board of Health votes on them.  With the Board set to vote during its September 15^th meeting, that leaves only a few weeks for concerned citizens and advocates to submit written comments. More troubling still, there will only be one limited opportunity for oral comments before the vote, which will take place at the September 15^th meeting just before the Board members consider the draft regulations.

Should the Board of Health approve the draft regulations, the new rules will still be subject to an “executive review” by Gov. McDonnell, the attorney general, the Virginia secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Planning and Budget. Depending on whether they opt for revisions, the emergency regulations will then take effect on or after January 1, 2011 and can remain in effect for a maximum of 18 months.

Fortunately, the public will have at least a bit more room to voice their concerns when it comes to the process for the permanent regulations. Here’s a rundown of how it will work:

1)      The Board of Health will file another “Notice of Intended Regulatory Action,” this time for the permanent replacement regulations, which will be followed by a 30-day comment period. As stated in Friday’s Notice of Intended Regulatory Action for the emergency regulations, the Board plans to hold one or more public hearings on the issue.

2)      After this initial comment period, the Board of Health will file proposed permanent regulations, which will then be followed by a 60-day comment period. The Board also have the opportunity to appoint a special regulatory advisory panel in order to seek out professional opinions on the matter, although, they don’t plan to do so (at least not at this time). During this extended feedback period, the Board is also free to modify the regulations, and if they do so, the public will get another 30 days to offer comments.

3)      Once the comment period is up, the Board of Health will publish a final version of the permanent regulations in the Virginia Register. The publication date marks the start of the “executive review” period for the permanent regulations during which the governor or the committees of jurisdiction in the Virginia General Assembly can file objections to the regulations. If either decides to file an objection, it will be published in the Register, and the Board of Health will then have 21 days to respond.  Should both the legislature and the governor file objections, they can stop the clock – i.e. suspend the date the regulations become effective. If no such objections are raised, the regulations will be implemented at the end of the “executive review” period.

Quite a complex process before all this is said an done. But before we even get to permanent regulations, we have a lot of work ahead with the emergency regulations.

What can you do to stand up for women’s health in light of these politically-motivated regulations that could detrimentally affect access to health care for Virginia women?

• Join us in contacting the Board of Health today, and ask them to amend these dangerous draft regulations.
• Attend the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health’s  rally on September 14^th to speak out against these outrageous regulations.
• Keep up with the latest information on the Coalition’s website and make your voice heard by signing the petition.

Update: Draft abortion regulations to be released tomorrow

The Richmond-Times Dispatch reports today that “a draft of emergency Virginia Department of Health regulations that could effectively force the closure of most of the state’s abortion clinics is expected to be made public Friday, a week ahead of schedule.”

As readers are aware by now, these new regulations come after abortion opponents used political maneuvering to amend an unrelated bill during this year’s General Assembly session.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s executive director, Tarina Keene discussed the new regulations with the Times-Dispatch, highlighting the need to protect access for Virginia women:

Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said advocates are concerned that the draft regulations will be similar to regulations passed in South Carolina, which she described as “very heavy on structural requirements we consider to be overly burdensome for first-trimester abortion procedures.”

She said the South Carolina regulations also require the full-time staffing of a registered nurse during all hours clinics are open, even on days when abortions and other surgical procedures are not being performed.

“We really hope they will adopt regulations that allow the clinics to continue to offer the care they are currently offering,” Keene said. “And that the regulations are based on health needs and sound medical science, not ideology and politics.”

Please stay tuned to this blog tomorrow as we will let you know what the draft regulations are as soon as we see them.

Additionally, be sure to ‘Like’ the Virginia Coalition for Women’s Health on Facebook and follow @VACoalitionWH for the latest updates on new regulations.

We must continue to stand up for women’s health

By NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

As we wrote yesterday, women’s health centers in Virginia will soon be subject to new, politically-motivated regulations.

An article in yesterday’s Chesterfield Observer further discussed the upcoming new regulations:

Senate Bill 924 passed the General Assembly earlier this year, requiring all health facilities that perform five or more first trimester abortions per month to meet the same standards as a hospital.

The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Bob McDonnell as an emergency regulation, will go into effect Dec. 31. Seen by some as a health issue and others as a way to shut down abortion clinics that can’t afford to meet the requirements, the Virginia Department of Health currently is working on preliminary regulations to give to the State Board of Health on Sept. 15.

Anti-choice officials in Virginia have been undermining women’s health in our state for years. Now they’ve chosen to single out doctors who provide abortion for additional regulation, despite the fact first-trimester abortion remains one of the safest in-office medical procedures and despite the strong safety records of women’s health centers in Virginia.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s executive director Tarina Keene cut to the heart of the issue:

“We are appalled at these repeated attacks on women’s health,” stated Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, via email. “Gov. McDonnell and his legislative cohorts have pursued a singleminded agenda to undercut women’s health in our state. There are no legitimate medical purposes for singling out abortion for further regulation. … [The] new regulations have nothing to do with women’s safety and everything to do with a political attempt to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.”

Elected officials and anti-choice groups who have spent years railing against abortion and attempting to impose additional restrictions on reproductive rights in Virginia now claim they are just trying to make abortion – an already-safe procedure – safer!

But we aren’t fooled. We know this is just another tactic in the overall anti-choice strategy of chipping away at reproductive rights and making it as difficult as possible for women to practically access abortion care.

If there was any doubt about their motives, the same article reminds us of the motivations of the groups that supported SB 924 and are now pushing for medically-unnecessary regulations:

“Olivia Gans, a spokesperson for the Virginia Society for Human Life, says the organization hopes the General Assembly will pursue further legislation to prohibit abortions.

We are pleased that the legislature realizes the seriousness of this issue,” Gans said. “As a mother who had an abortion, I’m deeply concerned … with the number of women who have abortions.”

Rather than working to decrease rates of unintended pregnancy – perhaps by pursuing policies that would provide access to affordable birth control, promote comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education or better support women who choose to parent – anti-choice lawmakers are instead seeking to decrease the number of legal abortions by simply keeping women from accessing quality reproductive healthcare.

We have to stand up and let the Board of Health and the governor know we will not stand for new regulations that are focused on a political agenda rather than the health and wellbeing of Virginia women.

Join us as we stand up for women’s health in Virginia:

• Join the over 700 Virginians calling upon Governor McDonnell to approve regulations based in medicine, not in politics
•  “Like” the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health on Facebook
• Follow @VACoalitionWH on Twitter

As Tarina points out, “If political motives and ideological passions interfere in the regulatory process, then the safety of women’s health may be jeopardized.”

Lesson Learned

By: Brett Copeland, League of Young Leaders (LoYL) Co-Chair

Guest Blogger

Last week I went to my first volunteer training with NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. Frankly, it left me appalled and inspired—appalled at how much anti-choice activity is going on in the state at any one time and inspired that I now know how to do something about it.

Joey Richards, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s Program and Communications Manager, connected the dots for us, from the legislative achievements for the year to anti-choice officials’ radical social agenda and, lastly, Senate Bill 924.

The largest lesson I learned from the orientation was that the battle for choice is being waged at the state-level, everyday, all the time. Out-of-touch members of the Virginia General Assembly have proven they are not afraid to champion their anti-choice crusade from the seat of elected power—to the detriment of men and women all over Virginia.

SB 924 is so disturbing because it will force in-office providers to be defined as a category of hospital—but only for abortion providers. Anti-choice lawmakers could not be clearer—they are going to strip away fundamental reproductive human rights, and they are going to do it through shady political maneuvering right under the noses of citizens.

The silent assault they perpetrated puts choice at a higher risk in Virginia than it has been for a long time—17 of the 21 clinics that provide valuable healthcare services to Virginians may close due to SB 924. It would be a devastating moment for healthcare in Virginia. The worst part is that there is only a small window for our public comment.

So what exactly can we do about it? For starters, we can contact Governor McDonnell and ask him to veto the new abortion restrictions. We can write letters to local papers to let our officials know these unprecedented and reckless attacks on women’s healthcare will not stand. We can also be prepared to attend the September 15 Board of Health meeting. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to learning more about what’s next by attending more NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia trainings. Will you join me?

*To sign up to volunteer or attend an upcoming orientation and training, contact Joey*

Anti-choice crusaders seek to bulldoze through new regulations

Now that the dust has settled from the surprise last minute attack on abortion rights during this year’s General Assembly session, we can look back and see what exactly happened and what we can expect next.

Anti-choice legislators who oppose access to comprehensive reproductive health care have been trying to pass legislation for nearly two decades in an effort to restrict and eliminate abortion rights in the Commonwealth. Since anti-choice Republicans won big in the last federal congressional election, taking control of the House of Representatives, there has been an all out war on reproductive rights. But the “War on Women” is not just happening on Capitol Hill.

Last August, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued a legal opinion, requested by Sen. Ralph Smith (R-Roanoke) and Del. Robert Marshall (R-Prince William) declaring the state Board of Health could issue regulations for first-trimester abortion offices. To clarify, this would single out abortion providers from other physician offices (dentists, cosmetic surgeons, LASIK surgeons, etc.) for potentially stricter regulations.

Cuccinelli’s legal opinion did not require the Board of Health to regulate, but merely said they could do so. Since August, the Board of Health has done nothing to offer new regulations, and was not showing indications that they would. With no new regulations in sight, we turned our full attention and efforts to the ever-difficult General Assembly.

Five months after Cuccinelli’s opinion, state anti-abortion legislators proposed a total of nine bills in both the House of Delegates and state Senate, which would seek to limit or eliminate access to safe, legal abortion in Virginia. We saw bills requiring all women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, banning all private insurance carriers from offering vital abortion coverage, three separate bills granting personhood rights to zygotes and the usual TRAP –targeted regulations of abortion providers – bill. Fortunately, regardless of whether the anti-abortion bills started in the House or the Senate, the Senate Education and Health Committee defeated them one by one.

By the second to the last week of the General Assembly, pro-choice supporters felt cautiously optimistic at seeming to survive another year with no new restrictions on valuable abortion care. During this time, anti-abortion legislators were planning their last minute attack on abortion rights. As we reported recently, in the closing hours of the 2011 General Assembly session, reckless anti-choice legislators used an unrelated bill to sneak in and force through a last-minute amendment targeting abortion providers. The amendment requires the Board of Health to regulate first-trimester abortion providers as a type of “hospital.”

The bill in question, Senate bill 924, had already passed the Senate. Delegate Kathy Bryon (R-Campbell County) attached the new hospital amendment in the House.  Since the Senate bill 924 had already gone through committee before the amendment was proposed, it was no longer able to go to the Senate Education and Health Committee with the new amendment. Through gimmickry, they managed to move Virginia backward regarding access to vital health care. Now the bill is on its way to anti-choice crusader Governor McDonnell, who has expressed intentions to sign the bill. Once the governor signs the bill into law, the regulatory process will begin.

After Governor McDonnell signs the bill into law, it will then go to the State Board of Health to determine the regulations for the abortion clinics. There are fifteen members of the Board of Health, eleven of whom have been appointed by ex-Governor Kaine. However, “by the end of his four-year term, McDonnell will have appointed 11 members of the board, which appears to have the power to reconsider regulations at any time.” The Board of Health has 280 days to design the new regulation for abortion clinics. In the meantime, the Board of Health will probably hold two public hearings before making any decision. There are currently a number of other states that are trying to pass similar abortion regulation bills.

Last Friday, the state Board of Health held their quarterly meeting. One item on the agenda stood out among the rest: the legislative update.

Normally, the Board of Health would take up to two years to adopt new regulations. The typical period would include several opportunities for written and oral comments from the public. The lengthy process makes sense. New regulations should not be taken lightly and both the Board and the public should have ample opportunity to consider and comment on how new rules would affect access to services.

But those opposed to abortion access are not about to give the public ample time to weigh in.

The staunchly anti-choice, anti-woman McDonnell administration and its General Assembly allies seem to be weary of any public comment derailing their assiduous, out-of-touch efforts to limit and eliminate access to safe, legal abortion in the Commonwealth. Therefore, they are requiring the Board of Health to adopt “emergency regulations,” a tactic rarely used in Virginia.

The emergency regulation process severely curtails public comment and essentially grants the governor the power to draft regulations of his choosing. Here is what we know about the process so far:

• The Board of Health will study regulations in other states and have draft regulations available on September 1, which they will only distribute to the public by request. (We will be requesting the regulations and will make them available.)
• On September 15, the Board will hold its quarterly meeting. At this meeting, members of the public will have two minutes each to comment on proposed regulations. Following comment and deliberation, the Board will vote on new regulations during this same meeting.
• Once the Board weighs public comment and votes on the new regulations, the proposed rules will be in the hands of the McDonnell administration to shape, tweak and edit with no further review or public comment necessary!

Essentially, anti-choice legislators have found a way to bulldoze through unwarranted and unnecessary regulations that could leave Virginia with fewer than five first-trimester abortion providers.

So we have a lot of work ahead. We refuse to let anti-choice zealots operate in complete secrecy in their unrelenting assault on women’s rights.

National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers

Today is National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers, and could not have come at more appropriate time.

Abortion providers across the country face serious, daily threats of violence and harassment. The brave doctors, nurses and staff deal with constant protest, stalking, bomb threats, arson, suspicious mail and even death threats. And we are all still reeling from the assassination two years ago of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, gunned down by anti-choice extremist Scott Roeder while attending church.

Abortion providers go to work every day knowing they will be harassed and threatened directly. They also face constant political and legislative attack. In Virginia, we know these attacks all too well. At the close of the 2011 General Assembly session, and after over two decades of pushing for more and more restrictions, reckless, out-of-touch anti-choice legislators snuck in an amendment to an unrelated bill which now requires the Board of Health define first-trimester abortion providers as a type of hospital.

We do not know what regulations the Board of Health will propose. However, abortion-rights opponents have cited South Carolina precedent (PDF), which prescribed regulations concerning size of parking lot, size of doors and hallways and even lawn care (PDF)!

Virginia’s abortion providers face constant unwarranted obstacles to continuing to offer their services. Rosemary Codding, Director of the Falls Church Healthcare Center (a member of the Abortion Care Network), talks about these obstacles in a recent interview. In the midst and despite of incessant anti-choice attacks, our abortion providers work to offer Virginia women necessary and respectful reproductive care. Some of the facilities offer a range of gynecological services. Some even offer the flu vaccine!

Virginia women deserve access to comprehensive care. Virginia women deserve access to trusted and dedicated providers who will treat them with respect and dignity, and offer reproductive care for where they are in life. And Virginia abortion providers deserve to be treated with the respect they deserve as valuable members of the medical community, who quite literally risk their lives to support the lives of others.

So on this National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers, please send a quick call or note to Virginia’s abortion providers (find a list here) or show your support by signing the Abortion Provider’s Declaration of Rights.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia staff, supporters and activists stand up today and say a heartfelt thank you to all our abortion providers who give women of the Commonwealth a choice, day after day.

P.S. Check out the video thank you message from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice to our nation’s abortion providers.

Ask Governor McDonnell to veto new abortion restrictions [Action Alert]

Anti-choice politicians in Virginia have shown yet again just how far they are willing to go to increase government interference in reproductive health care and restrict Virginia women’s ability to choose abortion.

Now it’s time to show them that we won’t back down.

The Virginia General Assembly’s anti-choice legislators launched a sneak attack as the 2011 legislative session came to a close. Members in the House of Delegates added an amendment onto a bill that originally had nothing to do with abortion that redefines first-trimester abortion providers’ facilities as “hospitals” and instructs the State Board of Health to single them out from among similar medical professionals for additional regulation.

Anti-choice Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling cast the tie-breaking vote to pass this bill in our state Senate. Now this legislation moves to Gov. Bob McDonnell, who could sign it any day now.

This is a blatant attempt to put the majority of Virginia’s abortion providers out of business and cut off the ability of women throughout the Commonwealth to access safe, legal abortion care.

I hope you will join us in telling Gov. McDonnell that this egregious attack on reproductive health-care providers and the women they serve is unacceptable.

Even if the governor chooses to place women’s health in danger and signs this legislation into law, this fight is far from over. It would then be up to the State Board of Health to issue new regulations, which means we will have a chance to ensure that abortion providers are not unfairly singled out to serve an ideological agenda.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia is ready to fight back and mobilize pro-choice Virginians to oppose regulations that would restrict a woman’s right to choose in our state. Will you join us?

It will be a tough battle, but access to abortion and reproductive health care is just not something Virginia’s women can afford to lose. That’s why we need you to contact the governor today to protect women’s rights and health. Thank you for your support!

Restricting choice in Virginia by attacking abortion providers

At the last minute, reckless legislators restrict reproductive choice in Virginia by moving to regulate abortion providers as hospitals

Anti-choice legislators in the Virginia General Assembly have been trying for decades to restrict a woman’s right and ability to access abortion care in the commonwealth in any way they can. In particular, they’ve tried and failed for years to implement targeted regulation on abortion providers (or TRAP) laws, which single out providers for onerous and unnecessary restrictions in an effort to shut them down and deny women access.

This year’s legislative session was no different. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia pushed back all session long against a series of legislative attacks on reproductive freedom, which up until this week were all defeated in the Senate Committee on Education and Health. After many weeks of fighting off anti-choice legislation in the House and Senate, it seemed that our battle to protect reproductive choice this session was finished.

But this past week, as the 2011 legislative session came to a close, anti-choice politicians mounted a successful last-minute sneak attack on Virginia’s first-trimester abortion providers and the women they serve. In the House of Delegates last Monday, anti-choice Del. Kathy Byron added an amendment to SB924 – a bill dealing with hospitals and nursing homes that originally had nothing to do with abortion – in order to change the definition of “hospital” to include “facilities in which five or more first-trimester abortions per month are performed.”

The amended bill was then sent back to the state Senate, where after lengthy and heated debate and despite the quick response of many of our members and activists to contact their elected officials, the bill managed to squeak by with a 20-20 tie vote, with conservative Democrats Senator Charles Colgan (D-Prince William County) and Senator Phillip Puckett (D-Tazewell) voting to approve the new restrictions. That left it to anti-choice Lt. Governor Bill Bolling to break the tie, and the bill was passed. This legislation is now on its way to Governor McDonnell, who has already promised to sign it into law. (See the full votes here.)

Over the course of two days of debate, our choice champions in the Senate stood up to support Virginia women by decrying this insidious and devastating attack on reproductive care. We thank all our allies in the Senate who voted against this anti-choice legislation (see votes listed here), but we want to extend special gratitude to the following senators who spoke passionately on the floor about this bill’s true motives and the devastating impact it could have on reproductive choice in Virginia.

• Sen. Mark Herring (D-Loudoun)
• Sen. George Barker (D-Alexandria)
• Sen. John Edwards (D-Roanoke)
• Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke)
• Sen. Patsy Ticer (D-Alexandria)
• Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington)
• Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Springfield)
• Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton)
• Sen. Ralph Northam (D-Norfolk)
• Sen. Janet Howell (D-Reston)

Be sure to send a quick thank-you note to the senators who voted “no”, especially if you are a constituent, thanking them for voting to protect reproductive freedom and healthcare!

If your senator is one of the 20 who voted in favor this egregious legislation, they also need to hear from you. Tell them that attacking women’s reproductive rights under the guise of protecting women’s health is not acceptable.

“If anybody thinks this is about women’s health, get a life…”

So what does this all mean?

This new law will allow the state’s Board of Health to force first-trimester abortion providers to conform to medically unnecessary hospital-level regulations in order to stay open. By making abortion providers jump through onerous regulatory hoops not required of similar doctor’s offices providing outpatient surgeries, anti-choice politicians hope they can shut down as many providers as possible and drastically reduce women’s access to safe, legal abortion care in Virginia.

Throughout the floor debate, anti-choice legislators attempted to claim the bill was about protecting women’s health and safety. They made inaccurate statements to imply that Virginia’s abortion providers are currently unregulated or unsafe, which we know is completely untrue.  First-trimester abortion providers in Virginia already adhere to regulations from the Board of Health Professions, the Board of Medicine and other licensing and regulatory bodies. First-trimester abortion remains one of the safest medical procedures a woman can undergo, similar to or safer than comparable office-based procedures such as colonoscopy or cosmetic surgery.

As NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s Executive Director Tarina Keene noted, “”This is not about safety for women. This is about ideology, and this is about politics…The women of the commonwealth are going to be the ones left to suffer.” In the words of Majority Leader Sen. Richard Saslaw, “If anybody thinks this debate is about women’s health, get a life. The only physician we have in this body has said what nonsense this is.”

At a time when Virginians are concerned about jobs, education, transportation and health care, our out-of-touch General Assembly has voted to remove women’s access to basic, vital and potentially life-saving abortion care. The passage of such far-reaching legislation will make Virginia the first state in the country requiring first-trimester abortions take place in a hospital. It could even make abortion providers adhere to hospital-like architectural standards. The rules and regulations for hospitals (including size of parking lot, hallways, elevator doors and other architectural requirements) would require massive, cost-prohibitive structural changes for most doctor’s offices that provide abortion. Most of Virginia’s providers could not afford the cost of $1.5 and $2.0 million in changes and could be forced to close. This would also leave Virginia women with less access to other valuable services besides abortion as well, since many of these clinics also offer basic family planning services, gynecological exams and other reproductive health care.

What’s next?

Senator Howell summed up the tone of the day by stating, “This is a sad, sad day for Virginia women and our families.” But luckily, this fight is not over with the passage of this legislation.  It will now be up to the State Board of Health to issue new regulations regarding abortion providers, which means we will have a chance during the public comment period to ensure that abortion providers and the women they serve are not unfairly singled out to serve an ideological agenda.

The passage of this legislation is also another example of why this fall’s election season is so critical for the future of reproductive freedom in Virginia. Yesterday reminded us too keenly of the fact that we do not have a pro-choice majority in either the House of Delegates or the Senate, and that the executive branch is decidedly anti-choice. This fall, with all 140 General Assembly seats up for reelection, we must protect our legislative allies and work to elect more legislators who will stand up for reproductive freedom. If we don’t, this legislation will just be the tip of the iceberg.

We will have a lot of work to do in the coming months to fight back against this attack on abortion access and gear up for this fall’s elections – and we will need your help every step of the way. Keep up with us on the web, through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and right here on our blog. Be sure to sign up for our Choice Action Network alerts so you’ll get the latest updates about reproductive rights in the Commonwealth and what you can do. And if you can, please consider making a contribution to support NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and enable us to continue this fight.  We can’t do it without you.