I strongly support the current regulations on abortion centers approved overwhelmingly by the Board of Health.  These regulations should be made permanent and continue to include the strongest standards.

I refuse to accept the premise that abortion is health care because it ends lives rather than healing them.  However, the existence of the abortion industry under the guise of “health care” is a sad and tragic reality in our Commonwealth and our country.  The current regulations are reasonable, common-sense measures to ensure that life-saving equipment is on hand, infections are prevented, and clear written policies and building guidelines are in place. 

Although as a former R.N. who worked in a Neonatal ICU, I do not believe that abortion is “women’s reproductive health care,” or that pregnancy is an “illness requiring medical preventative treatment” or a “medical crisis,” current law permits abortions and my concern is for the women who obtain them. Women who do choose to have an abortion deserve to be treated in a facility that has strong, permanent safety regulations.

In the past, health inspectors have documented many cases of health and safety violations in the facilities that provide abortions, which then remain uncorrected. This does not protect a woman’s health, but endangers it. Left alone, abortion facilities have not provided adequate self-regulation. Women deserve better than this. So, I respectfully ask you, as a woman, to protect women’s health and safety by maintaining permanent and strong abortion facility regulations, such as have been already passed.