Women's health clinics should not be a political football. A woman is not a second class citizen, and has a constitutional right to make decisions about her own body. The obvious intent of increasing "regulation" of these clinics is to reduce abortions in order to exert political control of a woman's body by religious groups---- even when a woman does not belong to that religious group. This is outrageous and un-American. I find it ironic that a legislature which complains about over-regulation by the federal government, and objects on Second Amendment grounds to restrictions on buying guns thinks they have the right to regulate women's bodies. Regulating women's health clinics out of existence may be intended to reduce abortions---- but it will have no such result. It will only increase the numbers of back alley abortions and damage women's health, and thus, harm family life and the general well being of the Commonwealth. Women's health clinics provide many, many other services, far beyond the limited number of abortions they perform---- they should be encouraged and promoted, rather than betrayed and denigrated and closed down.

Therefore, on grounds of the constitutional right to privacy, on the separation of church and state (and anti-establishment of religion clause), and on economic grounds of improving public health and reducing total cost of health care over-all, I request that prposed regulations under consideration be denied, that is, not imposed.