I am a physician and a scientist. I was trained with the understanding that opinion and fact are not the same, that science and opinion are not the same, that science and religious beliefs cannot be equated. In the world of medicine, science and evidence and data are what we use to guide our care. It is my assumption that the very people who are reading this would want their medical care to be based on the best research and soundest scientific principles. One would not want lay persons to make up rules about what kind of treatment or medical diagnostic algorithms to follow.

However, we now have a situation where that is the case. People, untrained in health care and driven by religious beliefs and personal opinions, have imposed a set of regulations on those who provide first term abortions. To advance political and personal agendas, they pretend that there is a
"safety" issue where none exists. To advance their religious beliefs, they pretended to present a set of regulations to the Board of Health that had been approved by a team of medical experts, when this was a flat out lie. To advance their political agenda, they have advanced burdensome regulations that are designed to close clinics where abortions are performed. This is an end run designed to diminish the autonomy of women in the Commonwealth and to deny constitutionally protected rights to reproductive choice.

If there were a safety issue, why has the data never been shown? There are "eyes" in every emergency room in the state. If women were experiencing adverse effects from first trimester abortions, there would be evidence. However, there is none. None. This is a safe procedure and Virginia has an outstanding safety record. To pretend otherwise is simply  a way to mislead legislators and citizens. And to pretend that the number of parking places and of janitorial closets and of square footage will make the procedure safer is simply another falsehood.

It has been shown the world over that when safe and accessible abortions are denied, women are driven to desperation. The countries with the highest mortality rates and the highest abortion rates are those where these rights are denied. You can pretend otherwise, but you cannot deny the facts. And the fact is that these regulations have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with politics.