Office of the Attorney General, Virginia Department of Health, other concerned governmental agencies:

Targeted Regulation on Abortion Providers are about controlling women's bodies, not promoting their health [or the health of potential children]. The clinics affected provide a wide range of women's health services, are already subject to due safety procedures, and are often working with extremely limited funds. Without grandfathering in existing institutions, the requisite structural changes will effectively block access to safe abortion procedures. This type of underhanded policy does not eliminate many women's decision to terminate unwanted or medically unsound pregnancies, and actually increases the health risks you claim to care about by imposing new "safety regulations." Facilities that provide abortions are primarily concerned with the medical services that help ensure that women and any future offspring will be healthy. Healthy enough to carry a pregnancy to term, if that is your primary concern. If this were truly an issue of insufficient regulation, you could work with existing facilites to establish a timeline and offer funding to bring them up to code. As it stands, this is a fundamental disagreement over what constitutes "health," and discounts the voices of the women whose health is directly affected by the existence of these facilities. 

Regardless of the individual stances on abortion held by elected officials and regulatory bodies, it is unncessary and irresponsible to block access to basic health services. It is also a gross abuse of power to use the state government as a means of enforcing its leaders' personal morality on the bodies of women residing in Virginia.  

Please continue to provide your constituents with the access to safe, afordable medical care [including abortion procedures] we want and need. 

Sincerely,
Lindsey Hutchison