I am writing as a resident of Virginia, a mother of two daughters, and a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist and maternal fetal medicine physician who practices in the state of Virginia.

The new regulations outlined in the TRAP law were not designed to increase the safety of abortion procedures in the state of Virginia, they were designed to make it financially difficult or impossible for abortion providers to continue to provide access to a safe and legal procedure.  This was entirely a political decision which was not based on medical evidence but rather based on political and religious ideology.  Politics and theology have no place in decision-making in the department of health.