The Code of Virginia does not define medical or surgical abortions.

Ms. Tysinger of the Office of the Attorney General advised the Board at the September 2011 BOH meeting “that Virginia law does not distinguish between medical and surgical with regard to abortion procedures so this reference should be deleted from the proposed amendments.”

Virginia’s only medication-only facility has closed. 

This abortion facility closed on its own, and not as a result of the regulations.

The rationale to tailor the facility design and construction guidelines more precisely to the requirements of each facility no longer exists and is, therefore, not only incompatible with the Code of Virginia, but not needed. This change would only create unnecessary work for an already overworked VDH, as VDH would need to issue guidance documents regarding how this separation would impact other parts of the regulations.

Therefore I would recommend removing the additional terms “medication-induced abortion” and “surgical abortion” from 12VAC5-412-10. As well, 12VAC5-412-370 can be simplified by removing the medical and surgical distinction within the building code, thus creating less burdensome and greater accuracy of regulations.