Proposed change in who determines Gestational Age

In the proposed change under the definitions section of the regulations (12VAC5-412-10. Definitions.), the responsibility to determine the fetus’s gestational age (12 weeks) is taken away from a licensed physician and is given to an unlicensed and potentially untrained staff member. This is especially problematic for several reasons.

The first reason is relatively self-evident in that by substituting a licensed physician for an unlicensed staff, women are less safe since these decisions are being made by personnel who may lack the same advanced training and have not been vetted by the state. Additionally, the non-licensed staff member is not subject to the same professional standards, and by extension, the same consequences for being wrong.  This will have the effect of promoting more, not to mention illegal, abortions since the non-licensed staff, who are not subject to the same professional standards and training requirements, may well determine that the fetus is in the 1st trimester, when in fact it is in a much later stage. Since it is generally illegal for abortion clinics to perform abortions outside of the first trimester, this will provide easy opportunities for physicians to be willfully blind to the judgment of staff, and could also create the perverse incentive to determine gestational age to be at a much earlier stage than it really is in order to drive profit margins.

Not only is this dangerous for women, but it is bad policy since it provides for a process in which bad acts on the part of abortion providers can be shielded by loopholes in the law.

I recommend that this section of the health and safety standards not be amended.