Dear Board of Health Members,

Please put a halt to the suggested regulations and building requirements (which would require extensive, expensive renovation) for Women's Health Centers. There is absolutely NO reputable evidence that such changes are needed. Procedures in these clinics are safer than almost all outpatient procedures performed in other outpatient settings (such as colonoscopies, cardiac stress testing--which as a former technical director of an outpatient cardiac testing facility I have extensive experience to know) demonstrating no life-threatening complication rates after years of practice. The suggested regulations are completely medically unnecessary and inappropriate.

I know 3 women personally who use Women's Health Centers for their sole source of medical wellness care because they do not have health insurance due to financial circumstances. These women are not "takers" nor have they had abortions. They and their husbands work 2 and 3 part-time jobs without benefits. My friends are married and need access to reasonably priced birth-control and pap-tests and mammography. Their family budgets are so tight that vasectomies for their husbands are too costly.  Another lady I know is a widow with few resources.

Please stop the efforts of anti-choice zealots who claim to want less government regulation unless they can use regulation to dominate a cause that is none of their business. Stop the war on women and their ability to make their own personal medical decisions with access to safe medical care.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Linda M. Clague