Virginia Board of Health members approved permanent regulations on abortion clinics in the state Friday in an 11-2 vote. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli certified the regulations on the same day.
The regulations require the state’s 20 private abortion clinics to meet the architectural standards of newly constructed hospitals by the time their license expires in 2014.
The board has been involved with this legislation since September 2011, when emergency regulations were drafted by Cuccinelli and approved by the board with the notice that permanent regulations must be passed within the year. The board attempted to amend the regulations in June 2012 to grandfather in existing clinics, but ultimately moved forward with the original measures after Cuccinelli said such an amendment would not comply with existing law.
Board of Health member Amy Vest, who voted in favor of the regulations, said they are in the best interests for women across Virginia. The regulations will put into place standards to maintain cleanliness and safety that have proven successful in other states, she said.
But fellow board member James Edmonson said the legislation does not differentiate between centers that offer surgical abortions and those that offer medical abortions, where patients take pills to induce the abortion. He said the construction standards are not necessary for the latter.
“The idea that this is entirely about the health and safety of women is just [dis]ingenuous, it’s nonsensical,” Edmonson said.
Edmonson said he believes this is an attempt by Cuccinelli to shut down abortion clinics across the state.
Cianti Stewart-Reid, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said the regulations will be difficult and expensive for centers to comply with.
“The targeted restrictions are clearly a politically motivated tactic to limit access to abortion for women in Virginia,” Stewart-Reid said. She is concerned that if women’s health centers are closed for not complying with the regulations, women will also lose services such as access to birth control, breast cancer screenings and STI testing.
A statement sent out Friday from Cuccinelli spokesperson Brian Gottstein said the primary duty of the attorney general is to certify if the regulations adopted by the Board of Health comply with the law, and that the regulations passed Friday do comply.
The regulations must now be approved by the Department of Planning and Budget, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources and finally by Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Most facilities already comply with a majority of the permanent regulations, because they overlap with the emergency regulations passed two years ago, McDonnell spokesperson Jeff Caldwell said in an email.
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