In April, the Board of Health approved Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (also known as TRAP) despite overwhelming opposition from Virginia’s medical community, legal experts, women’s health advocates, and the people of Virginia. Since then, Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Cuccinelli officially signed off on the regulations, and one of our longest-serving women’s health centers has already been forced to close.

When these burdensome and unnecessary regulations go into effect, TRAP could force many of Virginia’s remaining women’s health centers to shut their doors, leaving thousands of women without access to essential reproductive care.

Over the past two years, Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Cuccinelli have pushed politically-motivated regulations by corrupting what should have been an evidence-based medical regulatory process. We’ve seen it all: legal threats, back-room deals, and even the resignation of Commissioner of Health Dr. Karen Remley, who felt she could no longer promote Virginia’s public health in the face of such drastic political overreach. 

You know as well as I do: TRAP has absolutely nothing to do with protecting women’s health. Instead, these onerous regulations are designed to force the majority of women’s health centers in Virginia to close, and prevent Virginia women from exercising their constitutional right to safe, legal abortion.

We are demanding that these TRAP regulations be scrapped.