I am a native Virginian and a Health Educator at Falls Church Healthcare Center. I have the honor of working with women who receive abortion care in Virginia. I hold their hands during their abortions, sit with them in the recovery room, connect them to domestic violence resources, organize their charts, baby sit their children, discuss their birth control options, but mostly I bare witness to their stories and strength. My patients complete me and have given me purpose. They are the best people and, besides my own, mothers I know. They have taught me how to trust and respect the complexities of our unique journeys.

It saddens me that I have to defend my basic right as a woman and human to have access to healthcare in a private and dignified setting. We, as women, will always have abortions. Restrictive laws cannot stop the force of our right and duty to control our bodies. If clinics like Falls Church Healthcare Center do not exist we will exercise this right in back-alleys and with pills sold on the black market. We will put our lives at risk to control our destinies and those of our families and communities. I welcome efforts to enhance our center’s already excellent care, but these regulations do not support the safety of the women I love. The Virginia Board of Health should do what is honest and just for Virginia by amending Senate Bill 924.