The proposed TRAPs--targeted regulations on abortion providers--seriously threaten the continued availability of safe, LEGAL first-trimester abortion and preventive reproductive health care in multiple locations throughout this state.  These requirements are unrelated to the services health centers provide and there is absolutely no proof that these changes will provide any medical benefit--but they WILL reduce or eliminate patient access to SAFE health care.

The regulations will increase the financial hurdles to health care for patients; women need MORE access to affordable, high quality health care, not less. Medically inappropriate and unnecessarily burdensome regulations would restrict access to essential health care services for the women of Virginia and further marginalize young, low-income, uninsured and minority women by decreasing their health care options. In today's economy, this group of women is growing larger, not shrinking--so a great many women will be disproportionately affected by these regulations. IS THIS REALLY WHAT WE WANT FOR VIRGINIA WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES?

The high standard of care provided by women's health centers is proven by their impressive safety record. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. Overregulation will limit access to a wide range of preventive reproductive health care services provided by women's health clinics, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. And this is overregulation for political reasons, not medical reasons; it is a backhanded, under-the-table, sleazy attempt to make an end run around a woman's right to choose. It seems that these politicians will not be satisfied until women are back where they were in 1972, with no rights over their own bodies. IS THIS REALLY WHAT WE WANT FOR VIRGINIA WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES?

It is my deepest hope and prayer that the regulations will be amended to be based purely on medicine and science--NOT POLITICS!--and should NOT impede women's access to essential and safe health care.