I am writing to express my concerns about certain regulations placed on women's health care centers by the TRAP legislation. The regulations threaten the continued availability of safe, legal first-trimester abortion and preventive reproductive health care in multiple locations throughout the state.

 

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, women's health care centers provide a variety of necessary health-related services beyond abortion, that contribute to the overall health and welfare of the state. Extensive, burdensome requirements for clinic buildings that are unrelated to the services health centers provide and have no proven medical benefit will reduce or eliminate patient access to health care, such as those seen in this bill, will reduce access to these services and likely cause a rise in disease and other preventable community-threatening trends. Specifically, overregulation will limit access to a wide range of preventive reproductive health care services provided by women's health clinics, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment.

The regulations will increase the financial hurdles to health care for patients, with no proven medical benefit to patients. Women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less.

If regulations placed on women's health centers are based upon evidence-based medical practices that advance the public health, then women in the Commonwealth will be able to maintain access to vital health care from trusted medical providers.

It is my hope that the regulations will be amended to be based purely on medicine and science and should not impede women's access to essential health care.

 

Sincerely,

Mallory Bucell