Virginia Abortion Clinics Threatened By New Regulations

There are 22 facilities that provide first-trimester abortions in Virginia, and all of them may have to close their doors over the next two years if they can't meet the state government's rigorous new health clinic regulations.

Virginia lawmakers passed legislation in the spring that required the Department of Health to release a set of "emergency" draft regulations for abortion clinics that were to go into effect by December 31.

The rules, released late on Friday, borrow a number of very specific physical plant requirements from a rulebook intended for the construction of new hospitals. For instance, a clinic must have 5-foot-wide hallways, 8-foot-wide areas outside of procedure rooms, specific numbers of toilets and types of sinks and all the latest requirements for air circulation flow and electrical wiring.

"On the first read, it seems hard to imagine that many facilities will be able to comply," Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told HuffPost. "We can fairly say that the regulations as drafted are the most severe, onerous and restrictive that have been proposed anywhere. They're intended to apply to facilities that don't yet exist."

If the Board of Health passes the new standards on September 15, abortion clinics have until January to show the state a plan for the extensive and expensive renovations they'll have to undergo in order to meet the new requirements.

The Virginia League of Planned Parenthood said none of its five clinics are currently in compliance with the draft regulations. The renovations required to meet the new rules would cost millions of dollars, and abortion clinics would have to foot the cost themselves and try to recoup the money in patient fees down the road.

"We recently spent $4.6 million on renovations for the building I'm in, and we still don't meet these requirements," said Paulette McElwain, president and CEO of VLPP. "I think it's highly likely that most facilities in Virginia that provide abortions wont be able to meet them either."

Anti-abortion advocates hailed the regulations as a victory for women's safety, because they will treat abortion clinics like hospitals instead of doctor's offices.

"If these regulations threaten Virginia’s abortion centers, one has to wonder just how bad things have been," the Family Foundation of Virginia said on its website.

Lawmakers in Kansas passed similar regulations earlier this year that would have shut down two out of three of the state's abortion clinics if a judge had not immediately blocked the restrictions with a preliminary injunction. The Virginia Coalition for Women's Health said it will consider similar legal action against the new regulations in Virginia, which it argues are a purely political attempt to restrict women's access to abortion.

"I think it's been very clear that Virginia's government and administration are anti-choice, and they have urged the adoption of politicized regulations that are not about patient safety," Goldberg said.

Maribeth Brewster, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health said it wrote the new guidelines without considering the current state of abortion facilities in Virginia.

"As the Department of Health has not previously licensed these types of facilities, we have no knowledge or information about their physical plans," Brewster told HuffPost. "We looked at the four things we were given that needed to be addressed."

The Board of Health is scheduled vote on the regulations after a short period of public comment on September 15.

Comments

[dbrett480]

08:56 PM on 08/31/2011

Since an abortion is a surgery, doesn't it make sense to have regulations that would treat abortion clinics the same as any place that performs surgeries?

[Lucy0808]

09:28 PM on 08/31/2011

There are numerous outpatient surgeries performed in clinics. Many, many types. However, these laws that pick those clinics that perform abortions and treat them differently than other clinic surgeries is abuse and nothing to do with medical procedures. It is about religious people making laws that abuse businesses that perform legal procedures and put unbearable rules on them specifically because they don't agree with abortion.

Invasive skin cancers and tumors removed by surgery, vasectomies, colon exams, oral surgery (performed with far more risk), stent insertion, and many many more.

[synergie]

06:19 PM on 09/01/2011

So are quite a few dental procedures, not to mention places that actually perform surgeries. No other clinics, offices, surgical centers, or even hospitals that perform equally invasive procedures, or far more invasive procedures are subject to these regulations.

They're not treating Reproductive care clinics like any other medical facilities, they're holding them to standards have been set for new construction of hospital facilities, thus current hospitals would not necessarily be in compliance with them.

[janet41652]

09:10 AM on 08/31/2011

Elizabeth, women can take responsibility as well as men.

[jb2000000]

12:51 AM on 08/31/2011

Doesn't anybody remember that abortion was signed into law to get it out of the "Back Allies" and have them preformed by qualified profession­als? Once it be comes illegal or impossible to get again, your daughters will have to once again resort to back ally hacks. It will have NO impact on whether or not a woman chooses to have one.

[synergie]

01:41 AM on 08/31/2011

No, that would require that these people actually understand history or care about actual human beings. They do not.

[rbrain]

12:23 AM on 08/31/2011

This is an underhanded law. It is deceitful and arbitrary and will not pass muster in a court of law, just like all the ridiculous anti-abortion law signed in Texas that requires a doctor to describe a sonogram to his patients. Its a sad day when the court is the only thing saving us from religious extremists.

[synergie]

01:41 AM on 08/31/2011

It was passed in an underhanded sort of way, and there seems to more things ethically wrong with it.

[p c r]

12:00 AM on 08/31/2011

Many outpatient surgical procedures are much more invasive, have a much higher risk of infection and use a higher level of sedation that a D&C at an abortion clinic. Will the dental clinic using conscious sedation to remove wisdom teeth, where flesh is actually cut with scalpels and then sutured be required to enlarge their hallways to neet inpatient hospital surgical standards? A Hickman Catheter is a permanent indwelling intavenous device that is surgically inserted and sutured into a major blood vessel. Will they make the outpatient surgery clincs inserting those increase the size of their janitor closets and OR's?

2. There is no evidence that there has ever been one complicati­­on related to any abortion clinic related to the structural layout. It is an arbitrary decision to punish the people who provide one specific outpatient service.

3. There is no evidence that any sanitation issues exist (as demonstrat­­ed by the lack of any complicati­­ons or infections­­). Why single out a single type of facility to renovate in order to "fix" a problem that does not exist?

The GOP is trying to single out one procedure to regulate, while ignoring actul safety problems in the Commonwealth. Enforcing these regulations, which are not even being imposed on existing hospitals, is a subversive effort by the head of one of Virginia's biggest forced birth faction using her husband's office in the Health Department to do it.

[Lucy0808]

09:30 PM on 08/31/2011

Bravo. Great post.

[groetzinger6]

08:22 PM on 09/05/2011

fanned and fav-I love your posts P C R! your thoughts and personal issues are appreciated. To tell you the truth I USED to be PRO LIFE now I am PRO CHOICE-after reading what you endured, how sometimes birthcontrol fails=I have changed my views. I USED to be a right winger-now I am neither. I see big business and MEN trying to supress womens rights and workers rights. I find it offensive they use the prayers etc in public. keep your religion private. I dont tell you how to live your life-hey that is what church is for-preach at church not here on aol, huffingpost.

[groetzinger6]

08:29 PM on 09/05/2011

THANK YOU for SPEAKING UP! LETS FIGHT TOGETHER TO KEEP THE GOP out of WOMENS issues!!! I SAY its MORE importnant now to fight to keep them out of office and OUT OF MY PERSONAL CHOICES!

[GOPNoLonger]

09:40 PM on 08/30/2011

Let's see Republicans want government to regulate your very physical being but not the physical (or fiscal) dangers that business can wreck on your being!!!

Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand

[cb55]

08:28 PM on 08/30/2011

So let me count the ways...

THEY want cuts to education, no taxes for the wealthy, stop regulations, small government (or none), say NO to compromise, stop all abortions and defund planned parenthood and Head Start...

and people actually want to vote them into political office?

[Jan Badinski]

03:01 AM on 09/02/2011

You betcha!

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

08:11 PM on 08/30/2011

Don't like abortions?...DON'T HAVE ONE. next

[Ant head]

06:30 PM on 08/30/2011

Hopefully I will never have to set foot in that State.

[Cynthia Dudley]

06:34 PM on 08/30/2011

Yeah, I'm running low on states that I'm willing to drive through as long as I'm female and fertile.

[p c r]

12:02 AM on 08/31/2011

I live here, and it is getting harder and harder to put up with it. We had a Democrat as governor last time. I just hope we can get a good candidate and take back the state.

[Jan Badinski]

03:03 AM on 09/02/2011

God, no kidding. For a party that claims it wants minimal government, they are quite backward on this.

[tj101]

12:13 PM on 09/02/2011

I, for one, will do anything to support you, pcr!

[hyader]

05:54 PM on 08/30/2011

yes I am a pro life conservative who is against capital punishment ( YES , PRO LIFE IS THE CORRECT TERM )

If in fact , these regulations only apply to clinics that provide abortions and not other clinics that provide medical procedures that can be categorized in the same manner , then the abortion supporters have a legitimate issue

However, if not, then the abortion clinics need to submit or close

[p c r]

12:03 AM on 08/31/2011

Thank you for your reasonable response. The fact is that no other clinics or offices providing outpatient surgeries, some much more invasive and dangerous than a D&C have to comply.

[synergie]

01:46 AM on 08/31/2011

Anti-choice is the correct term, pro-life requires a few more things. These regulations do only apply to clinics that provide abortions, thus the outrage is legitimate.

The people who advocate for choice are NOT "abortion supporters" just as these clinics are not "abortion clinics". Advocating for the autonomy of pregnant women is not a support of abortion, nor is a reproductive clinic in which 97% of the services provided are not abortion related an "abortion" clinic.

Thus, these clinics are being hounded and this is a jim crow law that attempts to make an end run around the legal right to free access to legal medical procedures.

[Jan Badinski]

03:05 AM on 09/02/2011

I know. They claim its a pro life deal, but pro life entails no use of birth control beyond the rhythm method.

These clinics provide birth control. Most of the patients go there for contraceptives. How this turns them in to a single minded clinic, I just don't see the reasoning.

[Ramirez]

05:52 PM on 08/30/2011

Invasive procedures such as Choice can be dangerous for the mother, and it's not unreasonable to regulate Choice facilities at the same level as hospitals.

I'm sure that the supporters of Planned Parenthood can band together and raise the funds necessary to provide world-class Choice facilities, in choice locations statewide.

[Cynthia Dudley]

05:59 PM on 08/30/2011

A nose job can be dangerous to the patient but they aren't applying these standards to those clinics so where is the outrage over those choices?
Also current hospitals don't have to meet those standards just ones that will be built in the future. So yes, it is unreasonable to expect existing facilities to be at the same level as facilities that haven't been built yet. Nice to know that EVENTUALLY hospitals will treat patients with heart surgery at the same level as women wanting a D&C but you wanted substandard care didn't you?

[synergie]

06:52 PM on 08/30/2011

Choice isn't a medical procedure. If you can't get that straight, there is no hope for you.

[bigalburke2]

05:13 PM on 08/30/2011

As much as I hate the idea of abortion, I don't want it to be abolished. I hate the fact that some use it for a regular form of birth control...repeat patients of the centers. I see so many babies with issues already from parents who did everything right from going to dr appts, abstaining from alcohol and smoking, eating right...and still had a child with physical or mental disabilities. What do you think will happen to those children of the irresponsible if forced to keep their unplanned pregnancy. They will keep drinking, taking drugs, smoking and every unhealthy thing they were doing before they got pregnant in hopes of having a miscarriage or because they just don't care. If they don't have the love or money to take care of this child what do you think they will turn out to be like. If mommy to be is a drug addict and continues to takes drugs then most likely the child will have mental disabilities, then the mom will have to depend on the system to provide free health services , and assistance with schooling until the child quits school or is thrown out. Once the child is an adult, what then? We will just continue to provide for them either in a mental health center or in the penitentiary. So see, a $200 abortion is a lot cheaper than the hundreds of thousands spent on a individual that even their own mother didn't want.

[synergie]

05:47 PM on 08/30/2011

Who exactly uses it as a "regular form of birth control"? Honestly, where are you getting these ideas from? Neither the statistics, nor the reality support such statements.

[anoise]

06:41 PM on 08/30/2011

actually I had a very irresponsible roommate that used it a few times as birth control. Really sad, her BF's mother boughter her BC pills and she wouldn't take them but went to clinic after clinic when she got pregnant.
Though I think that is the exception rather than the rule....

[Ylder Riza]

10:09 PM on 08/30/2011

Many women do. I have known a few. Someone that believes nothing is just as dumb as someone that believes everything.

[Maezeppa]

06:57 PM on 08/30/2011

Very few use it as a 'regular form of birth control' so I hope that puts your mind at ease. I somewhat agree with the balance of your opinions but basically, it's a private matter and a woman absolutely has the right to all options when it comes to planning her family and spacing her children in a way that she deems healthy and secure.

[bigalburke2]

08:10 AM on 08/31/2011

I hope you truely don't believe it is a viable means of "child spacing". There are other forms of birth control that their sole purpose is just that.

[LonosCurse]

05:00 PM on 08/30/2011

What is the deal with Ken Cucinelli? There have got to be better lawyers in Virginia than that putz.

[surferlaments]

04:50 PM on 08/30/2011

i can't answer all the postings that pretty much chided me for my viewpoint. the truth is, women are the one's who get pregnant. so therefore, i believe.... it is more the woman's responsiblity to make sure some type or birth control is used. sure the man or boy has responsibility too. but, there sure are alot of men and boy losers out there isn't there ladies? i read last week that worldwide, there are about 22 million abortions a year. i find that offensive. i believe abortion is wrong. i know everyone has a viewpoint and that is mine.

[johnr49]

05:54 PM on 08/30/2011

FYI condoms break, IUCDs become dislodged and even the pill is not 100% effective, so your assumption that the only people who get pregnant are those who don't use birth control is ridiculous.

[surferlaments]

09:16 PM on 08/30/2011

well of course they do. nothing in life is 100% but death. you statement is nuts. my assumption, was never said as you apparently interpreted. idiot. i never said the only people who get pregnant are those who don't use birth control. come to think of it... you are ridiculous.

[Ylder Riza]

10:10 PM on 08/30/2011

Condoms and birth control only fail when fools use them incorrectly. Condoms breaking and birth control failing is the BS religious idiots use to get people to abstain from sex.

[synergie]

06:03 PM on 08/30/2011

The reason you can't answer it is that you lack the knowledge about how and why unplanned pregnancy works. Even when both partners are being responsible and are using birth control, accidents happen. It's a failure to grasp this basic fact that's leaves you unable to answer the question. Your opinions should be based in fact.

Also, many people find themselves in situations where it is simply not financially or realistically possible to carry a pregnancy to term. With the current job and economic situation, this cannot be news to you.

Whatever your personal beliefs about abortion are, you don't have the right to force them on anyone else, or to make decisions for anyone else when you don't know the particulars of their situation.

Let me post it to you this way, would you be all right if someone made a personal moral argument about terminating all pregnancies (the opposite side of the coin to forcing all pregnancies to be carried to term) regardless of the circumstances, the wishes of the people involved or their own personal moral beliefs?

It's simple logic.

[surferlaments]

09:54 PM on 08/30/2011

look, i am not forcing anything on anybody. i am stating my opinion. what is wrong some of you people? keep having unprotected sex if that is what this is all about. there is too much irresponsibility with today's youth. what i do know, is girls and women are getting pregnant and there were 22 million abortions last year. do you not think something is wrong with that? again, i will not get pregnant. women and girls will..... so all i suggested is that some close up shop or make the man use a condom. and, for goodness sakes girls and women, at least quit screwing losers. now that is simple logic!

[wittyprof]

04:31 PM on 08/30/2011

okay, new rule. all you fundies clamoring about how the bible says life begins at conception, show us the chapter and verse. when you realize there is no such reference, please feel free to stop telling us one exists.

we'll wait.

[ProChoiceGrandma]

06:27 PM on 08/30/2011

The fundies ignore Numbers 5:11-27.

[katielady1969]

06:27 PM on 08/30/2011

I hear crickets! F&F