At a time when women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less, we're disappointed to seethis proposal. Low-income women and rural women will have even less access to safe abortion care and family planning services.
A medical expert panel of statewide OBGYNs recommended differentiating medical and surgical abortion in relation to the regulations as well as grandfathering in the existing clinics for the architectural requirements. We suggest we go with these original recommendations that are medically appropriate for first trimester abortion care.
Regulations that make it more difficult for health centers to provide high quality health care only make it harder for women and couples to access critical reproductive health care services, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, STI testing and treatment, and continued safe, legal abortion care.
The regulations - specifically the time and resources required to physically alter health centers for no medical reason - are likely to increase financial barriers/hurdles for patients as well as reduce women's ability to find a health care provider.
