To whom it may concern,

I'm writing as a citizen of Virginia to my concerns about the proposed regulations on abortion providers, based on my strong beliefs about protecting the rights of women in Virginia, and also my own experience.

I was recently forced to travel out of state for an abortion -- which we sought due to poor fetal diagnosis, and poor projected quality of life for our unborn child -- because Virginia's laws and access to services are in such a terrible state.  (More details on my story, and what it suggests about access to abortion services in VA, below.)  To make this awful choice was terrible enough for our family on a personal level.  As taxpayers, home-owners, and responsible and productive state citiizens, were quite shocked to find that our road would be made harder because of Virginia's legislation/lack of access to services.  We had a hard time believing that the state would insert itself into women's and family's private healthcare decisions in this way.

I am now shocked again to learn that some Virginia lawmakers are posied to enact more excessively burdensome regulations on abortion providers. And that many legitimate, clinically competent abortion providers would be forced to close their doors as a result. According to my understanding, these regulations were not put forward or supported by the medical community, but instead, represent a purely political agenda of winnowing away women's reproductive rights. 

To anyone who supports these regulations because of the political goal behind them -- i.e., that women's reproductive rights should be limited --  please believe me when I tell you that no one seeks an abortion "just because" .  Women seek abortions because in their particular situation, they have no other choice. To restrict and/or erode their access to an essential healthcare service is a very wrong kind of intrusion from the state.

In regard to these specific regulations, please reconsider them.  Please consult with health care experts and write  only reasonable regulations that are actually designed to ensure patient safety. Please do NOT install unreasonable regulations that will drive legitimate health care providers out of the state, leaving women in desperate situations behind.

Thank you.

Amanda B

My back story:

We received a severe diagnosis for our unborn child at 24 weeks, after delays in testing due in large part to our OBs' complete ignorance of the "legal timetable" for gathering information and doing testing before Virginia's legal limit of 24 weeks.  Our OBs, who saw that the fetus was sick but continued testing because they did not have an exact diagnosis at first, believed that as long as the termination was for major medical reasons, there was no upper limit in Virginia (and of course they were wrong and only realized their mistake after the limit had passed).  They then informed us that despite the severe diagnosis, their practice didn't do terminations; and that they knew of no other practice or facility anywhere in Virginia that would do it given that we were past the legal limit (by about 3 days, I might add).  We were forced to scramble to find a different provider out of state--one that we knew nothing about -- and travel there.

I attribute this fragmented, uninformed, and below-standard care  to the fact that abortion provision and providers in Virginia have already been marginalized out of the mainstream of the state's OB community. 

Anyone familiar with all the things that can go wrong in pregnancy can tell you that this is a bad mistake.

--AB