I do not support the amendment of hospital regulations concerning building and physical plant requirements because existing facilities should be allowed medically appropriate “grandfathering.”  I also do not support a selective application of the law that governs the architectural requirements imposed on health care facilities in Virginia, and there is no evidence whatsoever that new regulations concerning building requirements for women’s health care centers providing safe and legal first trimester abortion care will serve to support or improve patient safety.

The Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities are applied only to new construction for every health care facility in Virginia except women’s health care centers providing abortion care. The Board of Health, under Virginia law, has never applied the guidelines to existing facilities – in each and every past instance, the Board has applied the guidelines ONLY to new buildings. Women’s health care centers are being singled out by new regulations with a selective interpretation of the law meant solely to advance an ideological agenda.

The 2010 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, are "intended as minimum standards for designing and constructing new health care facility projects.”  They are not intended to apply to existing facilities, except to the extent that those facilities are in the process of undergoing significant renovation. In those circumstances, the Guidelines specify that "renovation projects and additions to existing facilities, only that portion of the total facility affected by the project shall be required to comply with the applicable section of these Guidelines.”

Under the law, women’s health care centers cannot be treated differently from other health care facilities. The final regulations for such centers now force current providers of first trimester abortion to meet stricter physical plant standards than any other health care facility in the state – more strict than hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and outpatient facilities. There is no legitimate reason to impose a different interpretation of the law, mandating  onerous new construction standards on health care facilities that have been shown to safely provide first trimester abortion care to Virginia women for 40 years, especially when no other existing entity is required to meet those standards. 

As well, the Attorney General has advised the Board of Health that it has no authority to differentiate between new and existing facilities when applying new regulations, and therefore does not have the authority to grandfather in existing clinics. If this is the case, then all previous grandfathering is illegal and ALL facilities and hospitals must meet these architectural requirements. The law cannot be applied selectively.