I am writing about the newly introduced regulations for abortion providers.  Please do not make these permanent.  I think they were introduced for the wrong reasons and will not improve safety and health for women in Virginia.  There were already very good safety measures in place for first-trimester abortion and other minimally invasive medical procedures.  Legislation should be introduced to fix a problem, but I’m afraid that the problem is that there are legislators who think they can prevent women from seeking abortion by making it harder and more expensive for providers to offer the procedure.

I am a volunteer at Planned Parenthood talking to women pre-abortion.  Their stories are often heartbreaking.   I do not see light-hearted, careless women seeking abortion.  I talk to women who are already struggling to take care of several children.  I talk to women in abusive relationships.  I talk to women who are barely able to take care of themselves and want to be better prepared to make a good life for the children that they will have later.  I talk to many women who used birth control and still got pregnant.  I talk to women who did not have access to effective birth control.  I even talk to women who are anti-abortion, but still believe that they are making a wise decision to end an unwanted pregnancy. 

Without access to safe, legal abortions and accurate information about health and family planning, women will do what they have always done:  seek illegal abortions, which cannot be supervised by the state, or try to miscarry by countless frightening and unhealthy methods.

Please take a look at the safety record for legal abortions in Virginia and then ask yourselves if new, stricter regulations are really about making things better for Virginia’s women and their families.  It appears that making it harder to provide abortions is all about legislating morality, not safety.