I am all for safe abortion care.  I think that having safety regulations similar to that of hospitals in all Virginia abortion clinics sounds like an idea I would be willing to entertain.  But I have to say, I do draw the line somewhere.  This time, I draw that line at parking lot requirements, hallway widths and other archetechtural standards being imposed upon Virginia's abortion clincs.  It's as simple as this: at any one time, an abortion clinic will never have as many people inside as a hospital will.  So why should they have to have the same number of parking spaces?  An abortion clinic has no use for stretchers.  So why should they have to have hallways wide enough to pass two stretchers, as hospitals do?

I am all for safe abortion care.  But safe and restrictive are two different things.  These standards are not set to help keep women safe.  They're set to try to shut down Virginia's abortion clinics.  They're set to force women out of their position of safety and privacy and into giving birth to unwanted and unplanned children.  These regulations are unnecessary and unfounded.

Please vote against making these regulations permanent.

Thank you for your time.