The women of Virginia deserve to have equal access to clinics that provide health care services and family planning services in our state.  Services that include mammograms, pap smears, STD testing, contraceptive care, and abortion care are currently operating within Virginia's health and regulatory guidelines, and they always have.  Wider hallways, water fountains, extra parking spaces, and larger janitorial closets are NOT a means, in and of themselves, to insure women's safety in outpatient facilities.  If the new regulations that currently target only women's health clinics were truly about the safety of women, then any and all outpatient clinics in the state of Virginia that currently perform or provide procedures that are considered invasive ( Ex:  colonoscopy, plastic surgery, dental surgery, etc.) and which might require emergency care should also be regulated with the same guidelines that are now being required of women's health clinics alone.

If in fact the Board of Health DOES NOT have the authority (as stated by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli) to "grandfather in" existing clinics, then they never have had the authority to grandfather in any existing clinic/hospital within the state.  ALL clinics/hospitals in Virginia need to operate within the current guidelines selectively applied to women's health clinics, and any previous regulations that excluded existing clinics from current law should now be required to abide by  all "new" regulations and guidelines since the Board of Health's inception.  I support this petition to amend the Regulations for Licensure of Hospitals in Virginia - Chapter 410 of the Administrative Code - as it conflicts with Virginia Code 32.1-127.00.001.

Attorney Generals in the state of Virginia are not allowed to selectively apply the laws of our state.