What does yesterday’s election mean for choice?

By staff

Yesterday was one of the biggest elections for choice in Virginia in the past few years.

From 6:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. voters across the state went to the polls to vote on all 140 General Assembly seats.

At stake this year was the state Senate, which is currently mixed-choice. This means that when choice-related bills come to the floor of the Senate, we do not have a reliable pro-choice majority to defeat them. We saw the consequences of this situation in January with a 20-20 tie vote to approve new regulations singling out Virginia abortion providers – anti-choice Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling cast the deciding vote to approve the bill and Virginia now faces the strictest abortion regulations in the country. (PDF)

So where does yesterday’s election leave us?

As of this posting, one key Senate race remains too close to call. In Senate District 17, in the city of Fredericksburg and Orange, Spotsylvania, Culpeper, Louisa and Albermarle counties, staunchly anti-choice candidate Bryce Reeves is unofficially leading dedicated pro-choice champion Senator Edd Houck – by 86 votes. Senator Houck is entitled to a recount.

Whatever happens in Senator Houck’s race, next year’s Virginia state Senate will still not have a reliable pro-choice majority. Senators Charles Colgan (District 29) and Phil Puckett (District 38), who won their reelection bids, are mixed-choice and voted for several anti-choice bills in the 2012 General Assembly session. (PDF)

What is most distressing is what could happen to the Senate Committee on Education and Health where all choice-related bills go.

Currently Senator Houck is the chair of this committee, which has a majority of strong pro-choice champions. The committee is often the last chance in the General Assembly to stop dangerous anti-choice legislation from moving forward. What is uncertain at this point is how that committee could look next year.

The battle for women’s health in Virginia will continue to be hard-fought in the years ahead, and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, our activists and our allies will continue mobilizing and fighting government intrusion of women’s private medical decisions.

On that note, we wish to congratulate NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC’s endorsed candidates who won their races yesterday.

In the House of Delegates, we congratulate:

• Delegate Mark Keam, District 35

• Delegate Ken Plum, District 36

• Delegate David Bulova, District 37

• Delegate Kaye Kory, District 38

• Delegate Vivian Watts, District 39

• Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, District 41

• Delegate Mark Sickles, District 43

• Delegate Scott Surovell, District 44

• Delegate David Englin, District 45

• Delegate Charniele Herring, District 46

• Delegate Patrick Hope, District 47

• Delegate Robert Brink, District 48

• Alfonso Lopez, District 49

• Delegate James Scott, District 53

• Delegate David Toscano, District 57

• Delegate Betsy Carr, District 69

• Delegate Jennifer McClellan, District 71

• Delegate Mamye BaCote, District 95

In the state Senate, we congratulate:

• Senator John Miller, District 1

• Senator Mamie Locke, District 2

• Senator Ralph Northam, District 6

• Senator Donald McEachin, District 9

• Senator John Edwards, District 21

• Delegate Adam Ebbin, District 30

• Barbara Favola, District 31

• Senator Janet Howell, District 32

• Senator Mark Herring, District 33

• Senator Dick Saslaw, District 35

• Senator Toddy Puller, District 36

• Senator Dave Marsden, District 37

• Senator George Barker, District 39

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC and our activists worked tirelessly in the last few months to protect and elect pro-choice champions. We look forward to continuing to work with our allies in 2012.

Stay tuned for further analysis of what the election results mean for choice over the coming days.

Pro-choice champions under attack

By: Staff

Just over a month away from the November 8 statewide election in Virginia, anti-choice politicians and groups are pulling out all the stops. Their ultimate goal – to take over the General Assembly and pursue an aggressive campaign to undermine women’s health.

In Senate District 17 in Fredericksburg, long-time pro-choice champion Edd Houck is facing anti-choice challenger Bryce Reeves.

Senator Houck, who has served in the state Senate since 1984, is the chair of the Senate Committee on Education and Health – the committee where bills dealing with reproductive choice end up in the Virginia Senate. Senator Houck is 100-percent pro-choice and has stood up to all manner of attacks on women’s health throughout the years.

Unfortunately, anti-choice groups are doing everything they can to unseat this champion for women’s health.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC are working tirelessly in the coming weeks to protect and elect politicians that will stand up for women, rather than sacrificing women’s health for politics. For a full list of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC’s endorsed candidates, visit our endorsement page.

Make sure you register to vote or update you registration through the State Board of Elections.

Polls are open from 6 AM to 7 PM across the state on Tuesday, November 8. Be sure to head to the polls and cast your vote for General Assembly members who will stand up for the women of Virginia.

For more information, be sure to visit our Political Updates page.

To get involved in electing pro-choice champions, contact info@naralva.org

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

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.

Breaking: Statement on draft abortion regulations

Today reminds us just how far we still have to go for women’s equality in the United States.

While we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, women’s equal access to comprehensive health care is in danger.

Late this afternoon, the Virginia Department of Health issued a draft of new regulations on women’s health centers in Virginia.

Be sure to read the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health’s press release with first reactions to the potentially devastating regulations.

And stay tuned for more updates early next week.

Stay safe this weekend!

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.

Reproductive Rights in the News: In Case You Missed It

By Brooke

Here are some quick reproductive rights highlights featured in the news recently:

• A Mother Jones article by Kate Sheppard talks about the new TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws in Kansas, which are similar to those recently passed in Virginia. In the article, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia executive director Tarina Keene notes TRAP regulations really serve “just to make life extremely difficult, if not impossible, for these facilities.”

Sharon Levin, the vice president of the National Abortion Federation, echoed the statement: “These are really politically motivated laws. These laws have nothing to do with patient safety.”

Providers in Kansas were given only two weeks to comply with the new regulations; it remains to be seen how long Virginia providers will have after draft regulations on September 15th (with final regulations approved by January 1, 2012). There is fear that the state health department will require Virginia providers to follow the same regulations South Carolina adopted in 2003 that “went so far as to dictate proper procedures for mowing the lawn.”

TRAP regulations use unwarranted and unnecessary restrictions to limit women’s ability to access full healthcare options. As Jezebel wrote so markedly in their response to: “We are curious to know what effect janitors’ closets have on the safety of women seeking care.”

• An Op-Ed in the Daily Press from Tamara Dietrich recapped this year in reproductive news. Dietrich cited the attempt to narrow the definition of rape under abortion law, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” and the Virginia General Assembly’s passage of TRAP legislation as the pronounced lows of this year. Tamara Dietrich quoted The Guttmacher Institute’s Elizabeth Nash stating: “It’s pretty much an all-out, anti-abortion free-for-all.”

• The Richmond Times-Dispatch chose to fact check our “McDonnell’s War on Women: By the Numbers” video. They ultimately confirmed the sad fact that we were not exaggerating about the extent of Governor McDonnell’s recent attacks on women’s health and reproductive rights in Virginia.

Virginia Political Pro(choice)files: Senator Mary Margaret Whipple

By Brooke

Welcome 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!

Virginia Political Pro(choice)files Part 1: Senator Mary Margaret Whipple

Throughout her career representing the 31^st district, Senator Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, maintained a solid record voting to protect women’s health. In February of this year, Senator Whipple announced that, after 15 years in office, she would not run for re-election to the Virginia State Senate.

Her clear passion for women’s rights throughout her time in Richmond is why NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia will honor Senator Whipple with our Defender of Choice Award this Saturday, June 4th at our inaugural Power of Choice event at the Arlington Arts Center.

Senator Whipple was chief patron or co-patron of at least six different bills advocating for reproductive rights and the improvement of women’s health services in Virginia throughout her tenure. These bills include the Birth Control Protection Act and a successful bill creating the “Trust Women, Respect Choice” license plate.

She also has a long history of opposing anti-choice measures. Just this year, Senator Whipple gave a heartfelt speech on the Senate floor while fighting against Senate Bill 924, a bill that forces women’s health centers performing five or more first-trimester abortions per month to be regulated as a category of hospital. Despite Senator Whipple’s efforts, this politically-motivated bill passed. Senator Whipple recognized the bill discriminates against low-income women, who could now be forced to travel long distances to obtain safe, legal abortions. She stated during the debates, “This does nothing to end abortions. It is purely discriminatory. It makes my heart sick and I hope that each of us will think in our own conscience about what we are doing today.”

NARAL Pro-choice Virginia expresses sincere thanks and gratitude to Senator Whipple for her constant support of women’s continued access to reproductive health care. So please, join us this Saturday as we recognize Senator Whipple’s tireless efforts to support reproductive rights in Virginia.

For more information or to purchase your tickets, check out our website or go to our Facebook page.

What Happened and What is Ahead?

By Sara Cardelle

Once a year, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia hosts a Legislative Debriefing event following the General Assembly session as an opportunity for our members and activists to meet and hear from our pro-choice legislature allies. This year, we had nearly 40 pro-choice supporters, which is our largest attendance to date. The audience had an opportunity to hear from six senators and delegates who spoke about our victories and defeats and what lies ahead for reproductive rights in the state of Virginia. (Be sure to check out photos from the event here.)

For the last four months I have been watching the General Assembly and the unfolding of the anti-reproductive rights plan to attack a woman’s right to choose in Virginia. I have watched live videos of anti-reproductive health bills on the floor and heard our allies as well as anti-choice legislator’s debate on the bills. So for me, it was an incredible opportunity to hear from six of our strong pro-choice allies as they shared their stories and views from the session. I especially found it sad but interesting that only a handful of conservative organizations have the power to scare many of our legislators into never voting in support for any reproductive rights issues, and that this hold has only gotten stronger in the last year or so. It was an amazing experience to be in a room full of passionate and excited people who care so strongly about reproductive rights. I left the event feeling unbelievably empowered by all of the attendees and legislatures.

This year’s speakers included:

• Senator Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, Senate Democratic Caucus Chair
• Senator George Barker, D-Fairfax
• Delegate Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, Reproductive Rights Caucus Chair
• Delegate Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria
• Delegate Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax
• Delegate Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, Progressive Caucus Chair

Each speaker had a different topic, so I want to hit the highlights for me of their presentations.

Delegate Ebbin talked about how important the 2011 elections are going to be in protecting and defending reproductive rights in Virginia over the next several years. He also spoke about the current redistricting battle going on in the House of Delegates and state Senate, which, come election time, could lead to an increase in the number of legislators opposed to comprehensive health care for Virginia women.

Delegate Watts talked about Senate Bill 924, which calls for the Board of Health to regulate facilities providing five or more first-trimester abortions per month as a category of hospital. She noted new regulations could not just affect abortion providers, but also OB/GYN offices. Describing recent attacks against women’s health care, she stated that this is the “worst year that I have seen [regarding] abortion legislation.“

Delegate Hope talked about a bill he patroned this year, HB 1488, which prohibits a correctional facility from using restraints (shackles) on any prisoner who is pregnant and in labor. The exception would exclude women who are a flight risk or pose serious harm to herself or others. This bill was tabled in the Military, Police and Public Safety Committee.  Even though the bill was defeated this year, Delegate Hope stated the discussion led to a meeting he and other members will have with the Director of the Department of Corrections to get further guidance and create better regulations.

Delegate Herring spoke of one of the bills she patroned, which was HB 2436. The bill stated that any qualified health benefits plan offered through an exchange shall be neither required to provide nor prohibited from providing insurance coverage for abortion services. This bill was a proactive bill to prevent anticipated bans on private insurance coverage for abortion services. Unfortunately, her bill was tabled in committee. Sadly, we did see a ban on private insurance coverage of abortion care, in the form of Governor McDonnell’s amendment to House Bill 2434, which would have simply created the state’s insurance exchange.

Senator Whipple discussed the TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) bill and the importance of the Senate Committee on Education and Health in defeating anti-choice legislation. She stated that many negative bills pass the House, but are defeated by women’s health allies in the Senate Committee on Education and Health. Several years ago, legislators wrote into the rules of the Senate that any bills related to abortion would automatically have to go to this Committee, which has been able to defeat a multitude of anti-reproductive-rights bills (even when the Committee had a Republican* majority).

Senator Barker talked about one of the positives coming out of this year’s 2011 General Assembly, which was Senate Bill 967. This bill would have added Family Life Education to the standards of learning guidelines and required all FLE programs be medically-accurate and science-based. The bill passed the full Senate and was defeated by a tie vote in House sub-committee (which is great progress). Senator Barker noted FLE has helped reduce teen pregnancy by a large percent. He also explained how some more moderate representatives used to vote for reproductive rights in the past but are now under extraordinary pressure from conservative organizations to vote no on any reproductive right bills. The fear is that any conservative legislator who votes even once for reproductive rights will automatically have a primary challenger who will most likely beat them in the primaries. Senator Barker said that “if we were able to have secret votes on the floor of the Senate on these types of bills, then we would have 25 to 30 votes on every one of these bills, to kill these bad bills.”

I, like many of the attendees, left this year’s Legislative Debriefing feeling passionate and angry over the current erosion of reproductive rights. This is an important time for people to get angry and to fight back, as reproductive rights are under attack all across the country right now. (In fact, 916 bills dealing with reproductive rights have been proposed across the country this year alone.) Anti-choice groups are no longer looking to outright overturn Roe v. Wade because they know that they can whittle down reproductive rights through the states, one bill at a time. This is why it is so important for Virginians to volunteer for pro-choice candidates in the summer and fall and to come out and vote for pro-choice candidates in this year’s statewide election.

As a helpful guide to know how your legislator ranks, we had a first glimpse of our 2011 scorecard during the debriefing. The scorecard allows you to see how your elected official stacks up on choice. Check back soon to see the full scorecard online.

*Supporting access to comprehensive reproductive health care options is not a partisan issue.

The Panel Presents the Status of Choice

Pro-Choice Allies Speak to the Group

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.