Board of Health,

I am an advocate for good safety standards for abortion clinics. Abortions are not risk free and women deserve care that would minimize those risks.The leading causes of abortion related maternal deaths within a week of the surgery are hemorrhage, infection, embolism, anesthesia, and undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies. Legal abortion is reported as the fifth leading cause of maternal death in the United States, though in fact it is recognized that most abortion-related deaths are not officially reported as such and therefore they may be much higher. Unfortunately, without inspections and standards, women are ill equipped to determine which clinics are unsafe or riskier. Women with unwanted pregnancies are typically in crisis mode which means they are not thinking as rationally to make the best decisions around choosing the safest location for an abortion. They are ill equipped to know what questions to ask to avoid risks and what to look for at a point in which they are feeling an urgency to make a decision. And of course clinics that are cutting corners aren’t going to self -disclose to unsuspecting women. The argument that women will not have access to health care if clinics can’t afford to meet safety standards is exaggerated. In 2011, 92% of Virginia counties had no abortion clinic. 78% of Virginia women lived in these counties. Nationwide, one-third of women traveled more than 25 miles in order to get an abortion. A woman can and will travel to get an abortion and is better off to travel farther to avoid clinics where safety standards can’t be met. For example, there is a clinic in Va Beach that has a return rate of 37 % for women receiving RU 486 whereas the typical return rate is 5 %. Women deserve to know that they are at higher risk going to the VA Beach clinic. Without the recent requirements for inspections, this information would not be available. Unfortunately, it is not even available enough to protect women. But to reverse these regulations would introduce more harm for women than good. Heather Warren