At the present time, the integrity of the Board of Health , the Attorney General , the Governor and the legislature is being called into question. #1) The State Legislature passed laws requiring that  women's health centers that perform abortions must comply with onerous architectural guidelines to improve patient safety. To date I have seen no medical evidence to justify those requirements. Can we all be honest and call it as it is; These regulations are intended to pressure abortion clinics to go out of business. Where is the integrity in giving honest reasons for implementing these types of regulations ? #2)  By State statute, the Board of Health is obligated to regulate healthcare in the State based on medical evidence, not politics. On June 15, 2012 , based on  their medical expert's' testimony, the BOH voted to accept the regulations but by a vote of 7-4 amended them to only apply to new facilities. The BOH  had acted independently upholding the integrity of the process. Shortly after that vote, Attorney General Cuccinelli wrote a letter to the Board saying he would not only not certify the BOH's vote but if there was litigation challenging the Board's decision, he would not guarantee that he would defend them. As a result of that threat, the BOH reversed its own vote to conform to the AG's wishes. If an Attorney General can threaten the BOH  to vote a certain way and not be independent of politics, then the integrity of the process is gone. Dr. Karen Remley, the highly respected Commissioner of Health at the time, resigned in protest following this debacle.

   Unless we revisit this issue in an independent way where the BOH can makes it's decisions free from political pressure, then the BOH as well as the AG's office will lose all credibility.