The new regulations for women's health centers that provide abortion services threaten the continued availability of safe, first-trimester abortion, and preventive reproductive health care in Virginia.  Extensive, burdensome requirements for clinic buildings that are unrelated to the services health centers provide and have no proven medical benefit do nothing but reduce or eliminate patient access to health care.  The regulations will increase the financial hurdles to health care for patients, with no proven medical benefit to patients.  This appears to be what they are actually designed to do.

Women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less.  Medically inappropriate and unnecessarily burdensome regulations restrict access to essential health care services for the women of Virginia and further marginalize young, low-income, uninsured and minority women by decreasing their health care options.  The high standard of care 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 am requesting that the regulations be amended to be based purely on medicine and science--and should not impede women's access to essential health care.

 

Dr. Peter Reynolds

Springfield, VA