I am strongly opposed to imposing these unnecessary and burdensome regulations on women's health centers in our state. These health centers have long been providing a wide array of safe, affordable and critically-important preventive health services to women in the Commonwealth. The high standard of care provided by women's health centers is proven by their impressive safety record. Further, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. Accordingly, regulations that single out abortion providers have absolutely nothing to do with the safe delivery of health care services for women and everything to with legislators' desire to intrude in the private decisions of women and their doctors and to restrict women's access to essential health care services. 

These regulations will limit access to a wide range of preventive reproductive health care services provided by women's health clinics, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. It is simply mind-boggling to me that the leaders of our state would be implementing regulations that will very likely make care less affordable and accessible to Commonwealth citizens at a time when they should be seeking to facilitate the very opposite -- increased access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.

I urge you to value women's health and lives over political machinations, and to allow sound, evidence-based medical practice dictate that these unnecessary, burdensome regulations be rescinded.

Respectfully,

Allison Garcimonde