ACLU says Board is playing politics with women’s health.
Richmond, VA – Virginia Board of Health today voted overwhelmingly to approve onerous and unnecessary regulations governing women’s health centers that perform abortions. Women’s rights advocates fear that the new regulations will make abortions prohibitively expensive and more difficult to obtain.
The regulations were issued as a result of SB 924, a 2011 law passed by the General Assembly mandating that the Board of Health create and implement new regulations treating clinics that perform five or more first-trimester abortions a year as if they were a category of hospital.
The proposed regulations, which were adopted today with substantially the same language may be found at: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Administration/meetings/documents/2011/pdf/Sept%2015%202011%20agenda%20and%20materials%20to%20be%20posted.pdf. For an explanation of the proposed regulations go to: http://www.coalitionforwomenshealth.org/learn-more/draftregulations.shtml.
“These regulations have nothing to do with the safe delivery of health services for women, and everything to do with politicians’ personal views on abortion,” said Katherine Greenier, Director of the Patricia M. Arnold Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU of Virginia. “First-trimester abortions remain one of the safest in-office surgical procedures. It is unfair to single them out and regulate them differently from other outpatient procedures.”
“Early abortion care is already difficult to access in the Commonwealth, with 86% of Virginia’s counties lacking any abortion providers,” added Greenier. “In particular, low income and rural women will have even fewer options to access safe abortion care and family planning services.” The rules crafted by the Department of Health and passed by the Board of Health will have to go before Governor McDonnell for final approval. They are expected to be approved by the governor who supported the proposed regulations.
At today’s hearing, Greenier provided testimony for the ACLU of Virginia during the public comment period of today’s meeting. Read her comments below.
The ACLU of Virginia partnered with the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health to oppose the new regulation. The Coalition's statement on today's meeting can be found below.
Contact: Katherine Greenier, (office) 804-644-8022
Comments for the Virginia Board of Health regarding the Proposed Regulations for the Licensure of Abortion Facilities
Testimony Provided By: Katherine Greenier, Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Patricia M. Arnold Women’s Rights Project, September 15, 2010
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia opposes certain sections related to confidentiality and privacy, as well as the extensive physical plant requirements, of the draft regulations for women’s health centers in the state, crafted by the Department of Health, and now before the Board of Health for review. Far from improving the outcome of an already safe procedure, the draft regulations would endanger women by imposing a regime of unprecedented severity, completely out of line with the standards for abortion care and for all other comparable medical procedures – in Virginia and throughout the nation. No state has ever passed, and no court has ever upheld, such burdensome regulations. With no connection whatsoever to improving patient safety, these draft regulations would do nothing but endanger women’s health by undermining their ability to access care from trusted, safe providers.
Most onerous unnecessary among the sections of the draft regulations is section 12 VAC 5-412-380, which requires that within two years, existing women’s health centers come into compliance with three chapters of the 2010 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities. However, these Guidelines are written to apply exclusively to new construction, and never to existing facilities. Indeed, we are aware of no other instance in which Virginia has required existing healthcare facilities to comply with regulations or guidelines designed for new construction. There is no legitimate regulatory purpose for thus singling out facilities that provide abortion care; removing them from the existing regulatory schemes applicable to facilities providing similar or riskier procedures; and subjecting them to uniquely burdensome and medically unnecessary regulations.
By limiting the ability of qualified providers to offer safe abortion care, and thus exacerbating the shortage of abortion providers, these draft regulations could “plac[e] a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a non-viable fetus.” Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 877 (1992). The ACLU of Virginia therefore urges the Board of Health to amend these regulations to reflect sound public health policy based on medically-accurate evidence and in line with the standard of care for abortion and other comparable medical services.
Statement from Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health:
Under Intimidation from Attorney General, Virginia Board of Health Rubber Stamps Draft Regulations
Patient Access to Abortion Care, Family Planning at Risk in Virginia
Richmond-- The Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health is deeply disappointed that the Virginia Board of Health chose to ignore sound science and failed to protect patient interests, including access to health care and patient confidentiality, by adopting these medically inappropriate regulations. We were dismayed that the Attorney General’s office unilaterally hijacked the deliberations of the Board of Health so that it could impose its own political agenda.
Women’s reproductive health centers provide a full array of safe, affordable preventive health services, including life saving cancer screenings, birth control, prenatal care and abortion care. The records show our health centers in Virginia already support the highest standards of care for women, yet women’s health centers that provide first trimester abortion care were singled out for more onerous regulations than hospitals and out-patient surgical centers.
The Board of Health was presented with testimony and comments from numerous medical professionals urging changes to the regulations and had multiple opportunities to adopt amendments that would have assured continued access to the full range of reproductive health services, including family planning and abortion care.
Despite testimony that showed the proposed regulations will likely drive up health care costs for patients and drive health providers out of practice, under pressure from the Attorney General’s office, the Board of Health chose to rubber stamp the draft regulations.
The sad fact is that the new regulations have no proven medical benefit to patients and, instead, will only serve to further limit patient access to abortion care as well as life saving cancer screenings, birth control, and the wide range of preventive care provided at women’s reproductive health centers.
Simply put, rather than implement medically - proven policies, the Board of Health adopted regulations that will put women’s health at risk.
In these difficult economic times, when Virginians need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less, women and families around the state may now find themselves struggling to find a health care provider.
That’s bad health policy and bad politics.
We call on Governor McDonnell to protect women’s access and put a stop to politics at patient expense.
