I am writing to urge amendment of Virginia's abortion clinic closure regulations, which were created with the purpose of harassing abortion clinic owners and forcing abortion clinics to close. It is clear that medical regulations should be driven by medical experts, not politicians or people with an ideological agenda.

Abortion is an incredibly safe and common medical procedure that is safer than colonoscopies and other safe and common medical procedures that are not regulated in this way. Forcing abortion clinics to close means that women are, in fact, less safe. 

I was horrified late last year to work with a patient from the Norfolk area who had to be transported up Washington, D.C., with abortion funds having to raise thousands of dollars for her travel, care, and child care which was delayed due to barriers to abortion access. During the process of raising money over the months she began to wonder aloud to intake counselors at the abortion funds if there was something she could do to force a miscarriage at home. Forcing abortion clinics to close, along with other medically unnecessary regulations, makes women less safe around the Commonwealth. 

The United States Supreme Court has decisively ruled that sham restrictions on a woman's ability to access safe, legal abortion are presumptively invalid. Accordingly, the Board cannot promulgate regulations that have no actual health benefit to women, or regulations that are more burdensome to a woman's ability to access abortion than they are beneficial to a woman's health and safety.

As a woman, a Virginian of reproductive age, and a mother of a daughter growing up here, I ask you to act today to amend sham restrictions and ensure medical regulations are based in evidence, not ideology.