Requiring abortion facilities to meet outpatient surgical center regulations would be medically inappropriate, detrimental to patients, and a wasteful use of limited health care resources.

Reproductive health providers would be required to make numerous changes to their staffing, equipment, and physical facilities-- all for purely political reasons. Once again, Governor McDonald and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are waging their war on women’s reproductive health all because of their personal agendas, not representing the opinions of Virginia’s women.

Such changes might be difficult or impossible, particularly in cases where significant

construction would be necessary to comply with physical plant requirements.

If these regulations force women’s health care clinics to shut their doors, women in Virginia will be harmed.

Young, minority, low-income, uninsured, rural women, as well as victims of domestic violence and sexual assault could be further marginalized by onerous regulations that reduce their access to affordable reproductive healthcare. Many women, particularly those with limited access to health care, go to reproductive health care facilities for a variety of essential services, including pap smears, breast cancer screening and contraception.

By making it harder or impossible for health centers to stay open, these regulations could limit or eliminate access for these women, not just to abortion, but to a broad range of critical reproductive health care clearly intended to prevent the provision of abortion services by forcing providers to comply with unnecessary, medically inappropriate regulations.