Please do not implement the proposed regulations governing women's health care centers.

 

The proposed regulations:

(1) are medically inappropriate and unnecessarily burdensome;

(2) are unrelated to the services health centers provide;

(3) have no proven medical value;

(4) will increase the financial hurdles to health care for women;

(4) will reduce or eliminate patient access to health care.

 

Implementing these regulations would restrict access to essential health care services for the women of Virginia. Women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less.The high standard of care already provided by women's health centers is proven by their impressive safety record. 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. 

 

I sincerely hope that the proposed regulations will be dismissed or at least amended to be based purely on medicine and science. Politics should not impede women's access to essential health care.