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.”

Celebrating women, one story at a time…

By Rebecca Lenn, LoYL Board Member

All of us have a story to tell, but rarely are we asked to share it, especially when it’s a story about health, sickness, strength and resilience as women. And when it is told, too often does it fall on deaf ears. That’s why last Thursday’s LUNAFEST event was so unique.

Thanks to the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation in partnership with the LUNAFEST campaign, forty-four women and men of all ages gathered in Arlington for an evening to celebrate women’s lives and stories – a powerful occasion considering how hard women’s health advocates have fought to keep women’s stories and voices at the fore of the debate on reproductive freedom in Virginia. This was NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation’s fourth annual LUNAFEST event benefiting not only the organization’s research, outreach and education work on reproductive rights, but also the critical work of the Breast Cancer Fund. In her welcoming address, Executive Director Tarina Keene reminded us that as pro-choice advocates we must lift up all women’s health concerns as equally important. Governor McDonnell and anti-choice leaders in Richmond are waging a war on women that isn’t just putting access to safe, legal abortion and birth control at risk. Their efforts are restricting and could shutter health care facilities that provide critical preventive services like breast cancer screenings. Threats to reproductive freedom and preventive care are undoubtedly threats to the whole of women’s freedom. Thursday night’s gathering fully embraced this reality.

Following Tarina’s address, the evening continued with a series of captivating short films by, for and about women. The series was commissioned by LUNAFEST (established in 2000 by LUNA) to simultaneously promote women filmmakers, raise awareness about women’s issues and support worthy organizations benefiting women throughout the U.S. and Canada, including NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation. From quirky animations about love to moving documentaries about illness and aging, the 10 selected films gave an exceptionally vivid glimpse into the lives of women throughout the world. The audience glimpsed into the life of a woman on the verge of suicide whose motives take a different turn when approached by a caring bystander, the first woman cable car operator in the U.S., a young table tennis champion, a South African teenager who struggles to live and love with AIDS and a ninety-two-year-old woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Each film was followed by loud rounds of applause, sighs of relief and/or spirited conversation. Whether it was the pain of loss, the thrill of victory or the struggle of overcoming obstacles, it was clear that the stories of these women resonated with each and everyone one of us.

In addition to the screening, the celebratory evening was abuzz with warm fellowship, laughter, new acquaintances and reflection. Advocates and supporters enjoyed a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception and the opportunity to contribute to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation and the Breast Cancer Fund in a silent auction featuring great finds from local artisans and businesses.

This was one of many great NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia events this year where pro-choice Virginians could celebrate women’s lives and fight to protect reproductive freedom in our state. I hope you will join NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and its League of Young Leaders (LoYL) for the next event on June 4th where the storytelling and movement-building will continue.

P.S. Be sure to check out pictures of the event.

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.