*The Board of Health must repeal and rewrite current regulations of women's health centers to protect women's health and preserve access to comprehensive reproductive care. Medically unnecessary restrictions designed to shut down health centers jeopardize women's health by making it more difficult for women to access safe and legal abortions along iwth the comprehensive, preventative health care these centers provide such as cancer screenings.

*Current regulations of Virginia women's health center are about politics, not medicine. Three years ago, medical experts recommended evidence-based regulations that protected women's health, but the Dept. of Health ignored their own doctors' recommendations and drafted regulations based on politics, not medicine.

*Doctors, health care professionals, and a majority of Virginians oppose TRAP restrictions. In 2012, a diverse group of 177 Virginia doctors and medical experts participated in a Richmond Times Dispatch advertisement, writing that "We must not ...allow political forces to dictate medical care." Also, in 2012, Dr. Karen Remley, the Virginia Health Commissioner, resigned her position due to the intrusion of politics into women's health care. A 2013 statewide survey showed a majority of Virginians (58%) oppose this medically-unnecessary and burdensome regulation of women's health centers that provide critical and comprehensive health care, including abortion.

Five Virginia women's health centers have already been forced to cose due to these regulations and, if the regulations remain as is, additional health centers will close. As a result, access to preventative services and other critical health care will be denied to tens of thousands of Virginia women and families, particularly those of low income who rely heavily on these facilities and their services for life-saving health care.

Sincerely,

Susan M. Seidler

Certified Senior Advisor (CSA), Certified information & Referral Specialist in Aging (CIRS-A) with more than 30 years experience in health education/advocacy and health promotion/disease prevention including women's health issues