RICHMOND — The Virginia Board of Health voted Thursday evening to reverse hospital-style rules and building codes for abortion clinics, fulfilling a campaign promise of Gov. Terry McAuliffe and delivering a setback to abortion foes.
The amended regulations — if finalized — will no longer require the state’s existing abortion clinics to comply with the inpatient hospital code. Nor would the regulations mandate that the clinics have transfer agreements with hospitals or impose strict construction and design standards. However, future clinics will have to follow parts of the construction code.
“Today’s vote is an enormous step forward in the fight to get extreme politics out of decisions that should be between women and their doctors,” McAuliffe (D) said in a statement. “I applaud the Board of Health for ending this disturbing chapter in our history and for heeding the advice of experts, medical professionals and Virginia women about the best way to provide safe access to health care.”
The move also drew praise from the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and ProgressVA.
Don’t be mislead. These TRAP rules and codes were meant to shut down clinics, not make abortion safer. Hopefully all new clinics, regardless of the type of medical service provided will have to follow codes that make all procedures safer. Plenty of us have out patient services that are far more invasive and dangerous than abortion.
Good for the State Board of Health for coming to its senses, now Cuccinelli and McDonald are peddling their influence elsewhere.
The thought occurred to me as I created this post that now our local clinic is closing, the protesters will have further to drive. Please know that the clinic owner always appreciated them being out there. Protester presence saved her thousands of dollars annually in advertising.
The best way to end abortion is to do all we can to reduce unwanted pregnancy. Yet, as we speak, members of the Senate and Congress are trying their best to defund Planned Parenthood. The Hyde Amendment has made it illegal for any federal money to go towards abortion. Those chasing after Planned Parenthood with pitchforks and torches need to think about the cost of unwanted, unplanned pregnancy. Birth Control ought to be a national priority.
I have to go write my check to Planned Parenthood. You can also designate them through amazon.com.
*TRAP* laws = Targeted Restriction of Abortion Providers
It never made any sense to me – Why should a clinic for a specific procedure need more regulation than other clinics that perform more complex procedures. It does show that some politicians are very petty.
OK, but will you hold the Gov responsible if just one person dies due to the lack of these standards?
Absolutely not. No one will die because of the lack of those standards. Do you even know what the standards are? I am betting not.
Really, do you argue that they were any higher than any other outpatient medical facility.
Is what any higher? The TRAP laws were only being imposed on clinics that provided abortion.
I absolutely do not think that anyone will die as a direct result of those new standards not being in place.
That is not to say that high medical standards shouldn’t be in all medical clinics. Reproductive health clinics are no different.
I can’t tell if you are being obtuse or not. We are not talking about women’s health clinics, we are talking about the medical standards (TRAP) that should be applied to those locations that perform abortions.
I would argue that abortion is at the high end of an outpatient surgical procedure. Do you disagree? Why would those facilities be exempted from the standards of other clinics that perform outpatient surgical procedures, except as a political pandering effort?
You think *I* am being obtuse? Most of the TRAP laws have to deal with construction and building standards, not medical procedures and equipment.
I absolutely think that the highest standards possible should be applied to medical facilities. That isn’t what TRAP laws are about.
I am not sure what you mean by high end. Do you mean death rates? Very low for abortion. Higher for child birth. I am not sure what the highest death rates are for outpatient clinics. I would guess plastic surgery. It isn’t abortion. The press would be all over it if it were.
What the TRAP laws did was order clinics that provided more than x abortions a week (very low number) to adhere to hospital construction standards or shut down.
@blue
blue – the TRAP laws pertained only to clinics that perform abortions. Not to clinics that perform any other medical procedure.
Are abortions medically more complex than a hip replacement, coronary stenting or throat surgery (ask Joan Rivers, although that was in NYC). If it applied to all outpatient clinics, I would be ok with it.
I wouldn’t because most of the TRAP laws are construction in nature and jack up cost when not necessary.