On behalf of the Board of Directors, our more than 20,000 statewide members, and the women of Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia respectfully submits public comment to the Virginia Board of Health in support of amending Title 12, Agency 5, Chapter 412, Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities. 

Since 2011, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has publically opposed the outcome and the means by which the unnecessary, onerous, and politically motivated regulations of women’s health centers that provide first trimester abortion were adopted and implemented.  We have tirelessly worked with the Virginia Department of Health, other women’s health advocates and medical providers to mitigate these regulations to bring them in line with what is medically appropriate for the provision of safe, legal first trimester abortion care.

We support the Board of Health’s recognition that as currently written, the regulations are incongruous with medical practice and need to be revised to safeguard women’s health as well as to ensure the state’s 18 surviving women’s health centers remain open and accessible.

We fully support the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health’s proposed amendments (submitted on February 11) that uphold evidence-based science and the standard of care. The Centers for Disease Control continues to cite first trimester abortion as one of the safest medical procedures available with a less than .05% complication rate.  Virginia’s regulations need to be stripped of the past’s political and ideological interference with abortion care and reflect the true medical reality of abortion.

When Virginia women decide to have an abortion, they need our respect and support as well as access to safe, legal medical care – not roadblocks.  This is the only true way to promote and protect women’s health and safety in the Commonwealth. Thank you.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, our more than 20,000 statewide members, and the women of Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia respectfully submits public comment to the Virginia Board of Health in support of amending Title 12, Agency 5, Chapter 412, Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities. 

Since 2011, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has publically opposed the outcome and the means by which the unnecessary, onerous, and politically motivated regulations of women’s health centers that provide first trimester abortion were adopted and implemented.  We have tirelessly worked with the Virginia Department of Health, other women’s health advocates and medical providers to mitigate these regulations to bring them in line with what is medically appropriate for the provision of safe, legal first trimester abortion care.

We support the Board of Health’s recognition that as currently written, the regulations are incongruous with medical practice and need to be revised to safeguard women’s health as well as to ensure the state’s 18 surviving women’s health centers remain open and accessible.

We fully support the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health’s proposed amendments (submitted on February 11) that uphold evidence-based science and the standard of care. The Centers for Disease Control continues to cite first trimester abortion as one of the safest medical procedures available with a less than .05% complication rate.  Virginia’s regulations need to be stripped of the past’s political and ideological interference with abortion care and reflect the true medical reality of abortion.

When Virginia women decide to have an abortion, they need our respect and support as well as access to safe, legal medical care – not roadblocks.  This is the only true way to promote and protect women’s health and safety in the Commonwealth. Thank you for beginning this process and for your thoughtful dilberation.