First-trimester abortions remain one of the safest and most common of all in-office surgical procedures. Abortion should not be regulated differently than other outpatient procedures that do not trigger these kinds of strict regulations. Final permanent regulations should be based in medicine, not politics.

Limiting access to health care denies women the right to health.  Women's health centers are not hospitals and forcing the centers to comply with the regulations for new construction will not make them safer but will cause many of them to close their doors, denying our citizens access to safe, affordable health care.

As a taxpaying and voting citizen of this Commonwealth, I ask you to stand with the women of Virginia and allow full access to critical reproductive health care services, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, STI testing and treatment, and continued safe, legal abortion care.

Donna M. Haynes

Mechanicsville, Virginia