Pro-choice candidates will help stop an extreme agenda

By: Staff

Yesterday, The Washington Post released their list of endorsed candidates for the Virginia state Senate races.

We were pleased to see that many of The Post’s candidates were also on NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC’s list of endorsed pro-choice candidates:

• Delegate Adam Ebbin- Senate District 30
• Barbara Favola- Senate District 31
• Senator Janet Howell- Senate District 32
• Senator Mark Herring- Senate District 33
• Senator Richard Saslaw- Senate District 35
• Senator Toddy Puller- Senate District 36
• Senator Dave Marsden- Senate District 37
• Senator George Barker- Senate District 39

We are also incredibly pleased to agree with The Post’s endorsement of Shawn Mitchell for a new Senate seat (District 31) in Loudoun County. Not only is Shawn Mitchell 100-percent pro-choice, but he would present an additional, much-needed pro-choice vote in the state Senate – a vote that would help stop the anti-choice agenda of Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

The November 8 election in Virginia for all 140 General Assembly seats is one of the most important in decades for choice.

Be sure to see NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC’s list of endorsed candidates and get involved in your area!

Paid for by NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. Not authorized by a candidate or candidate campaign.

What will you do now Governor McDonnell?

By: Staff

This past Saturday, hundreds of pro-choice activists gathered in Monroe Park in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

Our message to Governor McDonnell was simple – end the war on Virginia women.

See all the pictures from the event by clicking through to our photoset on Flickr..

We heard from college students, young women, abortion providers, members of the faith community, state elected officials and national activists and organizers.

Carmen Berkley, field director for Choice USA, passionately reminded us that this issue affects everyone in Virginia and across the country:

I’m standing up here for all the young people. For all the people of color. For all the gay people, the lesbians, the queer folks. The differently-abled. Because it is not ok that all of us can be standing out here and there are people up at the Capitol trying to tell us what to do with our bodies. We are sick and tired. I am tired of governors, not just from Virginia, but from Kansas and Mississippi, all the way from Maine to California telling us what to do with our bodies.

Carmen Berkley leads the crowd in raising our voices against dangerous regulations

Two speakers reminded us that, while the majority of Virginians are concerned with jobs, transportation and education, anti-choice elected officials focus on eliminating access to safe, legal abortion.

“The more we talk about jobs the more they pass bills to prohibit the access not only to abortion, but to birth control,” said Eleanor Smeal, keynote speaker and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Delegate Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, summed up the feelings of the crowd:

We’re standing here today because Governor McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli have decided to abuse the regulatory system. This is a dangerous piece of regulation. Governor McDonnell, we say no to extreme ideology. Governor McDonnell, we say no to those regulations that prevent doctors from practicing medicine. Governor McDonnell, we say no to your heavy hand of government interfering with the private decisions of a woman, her doctor and her God.

Delegate Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, calls on Gov. McDonnell to end his war on Virginia women.

For the past few months, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health have been working tirelessly to get the word out about new regulations on Virginia’s abortion providers. These regulations were mandated by a law that narrowly passed the General Assembly earlier this year, and the Governor imposed an “emergency” regulation process to create them without many of the usual opportunities for deliberation and public comment. The state Department of Health used this new authority to draft excessive, onerous and medically-irrelevant restrictions that single out abortion providers from among all other medical providers.  The draft regulations, recently approved by the state Board of Health, also do little to protect patient and provider safety and confidentiality. (Find out more about the draft regulations at the Coalition website.)

The regulations now go before Governor Bob McDonnell. If he signs them as drafted, they will be the strictest regulations on abortion providers in the entire country.

Governor McDonnell, pro-choice Virginians — and people across the country — are watching what you do next. Will you stand up for Virginia women or pursue a narrow, political agenda?

Be sure to sign the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health petition today, asking Governor McDonnell not to sign these regulations.

See all the pictures from the event by going to our photoset on Flickr.

For more information, visit the Coalition’s website at http://www.coalitionforwomenshealth.org

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.

Tarina discusses Virginia abortion regulations with Rachel Maddow

By NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

Last night, our executive director, Tarina Keene, went on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the potential impacts upcoming abortion regulations could have on Virginia women.

Check out the video below, and read more at NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Blog for Choice.

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.”

Headline of the Week: Private Insurance to FULLY Cover Birth Control, Well-Woman Doctors Visits, and More!

By Brooke

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced their new guidelines for women’s health care coverage. There will be many changes, the most notable being full coverage of birth control pills under all private insurance plans.

As of August 1^st, 2012, private insurance companies must cover preventative services for women without co-pay. According to White House advisor Stephanie Cutter, “We know that half of women, according to studies, forego or delay preventive care because they can’t afford it and under the affordable care act that all changes.” Hopefully this situation will change for the better as of August 2012.

Other services that will be covered include diabetes screenings, well-woman doctor’s visits, domestic violence screenings and the morning-after pill.

This decision comes in the wake of a well-publicized, sexist rant from commentator Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly spoke out against access to no-cost birth control, saying that “Many women who get pregnant are blasted out of their minds when they have sex, and they’re not going to use birth control anyway.” Luckily, common sense overcame such negative and derogatory rhetoric.

These new guidelines are a big step toward accessible healthcare for all women in the US. We join NARAL Pro-Choice America in applauding the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for looking past stereotypes and misinformation about contraception and making improvement of women’s healthcare a top priority.

As Ms. Cutter noted, “Today is about keeping women healthy.”

Senator Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax

Welcome back to our new, regular blog series, Virginia Political Pro(choice)files. In this segment, we highlight Virginia’s state politicians who support and fight for women’s reproductive rights while also drawing attention to politicians who are working to undermine the constitutional right to safe and legal abortion. To see how all General Assembly members stacked up in 2011, check out our Legislative Scorecard!

The Political Pro(choice)files: Senator Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax

By Brooke

Senator Dave Marsden is represents Senate District 37, which contains parts of Fairfax County. In addition to his great work on the issue of youth gangs, he has been a constant supporter of women’s health since his election in 2010.

He has supported reproductive choice in Virginia as both a delegate and a state senator.

Senator Marsden worked as the head of the state Department of Juvenile Justice before taking a seat in the Virginia Senate. He is a strong supporter of the best interests of Virginia women, children and families. During this past General Assembly session, he voiced his support for women’s health when he spoke out on the Senate floor against a bill that proposed to regulate abortion providers as a category of hospital. In his inspired speech, Marsden declared:

“In my lifetime there was a constitutional right to vote, but we put obstacles here in Virginia and all throughout Southern states to put an obstacle to people exercising that constitutional right to vote: Poll taxes, literacy tests, of course the argument was well of course we don’t want people voting on that which they don’t understand… I think you need to be careful here how we vote on this and what we’re identifying with…”

This comparison is striking: placing unnecessary barriers in front of citizens attempting to exercise constitutional rights could have dangerous consequences for future generations. The fact is, TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) are limiting the constitutional rights of Virginia women.

Because of his solid stance on reproductive choice issues, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia awarded Senator Marsden a pro-choice rating of 100 percent for the 2011 legislative session. The support of Senator Marsden and other pro-choice allies in the Virginia General Assembly is absolutely crucial. There is a war on women in our state and across the country, and we must maintain our pro-choice champions in Richmond to fight back and protect women’s healthcare.

For more voter information, check out the Virginia State Board of Elections website. Regardless of where you live, all Virginia voters should remember that the general election will be held on November 8^th.

Senator Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk

Welcome back to our new, regular blog series, Virginia Political Pro(choice)files. In this segment, we highlight Virginia’s state politicians who support and fight for women’s reproductive rights while also drawing attention to politicians who are working to undermine the constitutional right to safe and legal abortion. To see how all General Assembly members stacked up in 2011, check out our Legislative Scorecard!

The Political Pro(choice)files: Senator Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk

As a representative for Norfolk in the Virginia General Assembly, Ralph Northam has been an ally of women and a great advocate for comprehensive sexual education throughout his four years in office. He was first elected in 2007 and will be running in a very competitive election this November.

Ralph Northam was one of three Virginia state senators involved in proposing legislation in 2010 to reign in the bad habits of Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Northam, along with Senator Craig Deeds, Senator John Edwards, and Senator Dave Marsden, proposed a bill to regulate Virginia’s Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs)—regulations that would include a notice on the buildings stating that the facilities are not licensed, comprehensive healthcare centers. This bill went on to require that the facility include in the posted notice that it does not perform or refer women for abortions or contraception and that the facility is not required to adhere to confidentiality laws in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

As a pediatric neurologist, Northam knows that providing misleading and inaccurate medical information to women is dangerous and inappropriate. Women need to know that many CPCs have no obligation to respect their privacy.

Senator Northam, along with Delegates Charniele Herring and David Englin, participated in a press conference following the release of our research project exposing CPCs and showed nothing but support for women in need of accurate information in the midst of a difficult decision:

It is extremely important that these young women are able to seek medical advice that is in their best interest of their health … it’s important for women that seek advice from these centers to know what they offer and what they don’t offer and that’s exactly what this bill is intended to do. The bill, I think, will insure that expectant women will receive what I consider factual-based medical information and be able to make decisions that are in the best interest of their health.

The proposed bill also included a section prohibiting any CPC in violation of the prior regulations from receiving any funds derived from the Virginia Choose Life Fund license plates.

Although the bill was passed by indefinitely, it was successful in bringing some much needed attention to the issues surrounding CPCs.

In the last session of the General Assembly, Senator Northam also patroned SB 967, a bill that requires Virginia school districts to teach medically accurate and evidence-based programs that fall under the guidelines of Family Life Education. Although this bill passed in the Senate, it was unfortunately “left to die” in the House Committee on Education.

Clearly, Northam has shown that he is a strong supporter of women’s rights and his medical background gives him a solid perspective in regards to bills that involve women’s health.

We Have a New YouTube Channel—Check it Out!!!

By Brooke

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has a new YouTube Channel! Use it to stay up to date with all of our projects and events. In the last year we have exposed Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s War on Women, released videos detailing our investigation of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, sent highlights from the General Assembly session and more! Click here to subscribe to our channel and keep up with the latest NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia news.

Governor McDonnell’s War on Women: By the Numbers

What I learned at a Crisis Pregnancy Center