Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent the new rules for women's health centers back to the Board of Health. Make your voice heard at the September 14 meeting! 

One June 15, the Virginia Board of Health voted to amend a key provision of the proposed permanent regulations for women's health centers– the amendment means that existing women’s health care centers that provide safe, legal first-trimester abortion care will be "grandfathered in,” rather than being subjected to onerous and unnecessary forced building requirements.

On July 16, 2012, Attorney General Cuccinelli stated that his office refused to certify the Board’s vote. Thus, the proposed regulations will go back to the Board of Health for another vote on Friday, September 14. However, the Board can and should continue to vote in favor of medicine, not politics - the Attorney General does not have veto power over their decisions. On September 14, attend the Board of Health vote to demand  permanent regulations that protect women's health!

Date: Friday September 14, 2012

Time: The Board of Health meeting begins at 9 am

Join #OpposeTRAP at 7:30 am for an outside demonstration as Board members, Department of Health officials, and press arrive.

Location: Perimeter Center, 9960 Mayland Drive Richmond, VA

Timeline and key facts about the draft permanent regulations of women’s health care centers that provide abortion services in Virginia:  

·         In 2011, through an unrelated bill (SB 924), the Virginia House of Delegates changed the classification of women’s health care centers that provide first-trimester abortion (at least five performed per month) from “outpatient offices” to “hospitals.” This amendment was made by Rep. Kathy Byron, the same member of the Virginia legislature who proposed a new ultrasound requirement in 2011.

·         This change led to the drafting of “emergency” temporary regulations last fall, and now permanent regulations that require existing women’s health centers to come into compliance with three chapters of a manual called the 2010 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities within the next two years. The guidelines are intended to apply only to new construction, not to existing facilities, and this is how they are applied to every other health care facility in Virginia.  They include:

o   Building 5-foot wide public hallways throughout the women’s health care centers

o   Constructing hospital-like treatment rooms up to 150 square feet in size 

o   Adding new covered front entrances, public telephones, public bathrooms and drinking fountains in waiting rooms, requiring new plumbing to accommodate

o   Incorporating specific new ventilation systems

• Against medical counsel, the Department of Health’s draft regulations’ building requirements also do not make the distinction between medically-induced abortion and an outpatient procedure; medically-induced abortion is completed with oral medication in a doctor’s office. 

• The draft guidelines also include provisions that compromise patient and health care center confidentiality, including allowing state inspectors to remove patient records from facilities. 

• Inspectors are also permitted to arrive at health care centers with only an hour’s notice at any hour of the day, seven days a week, a provision that is a burden to health care managers who work on a 9-to-5 schedule. No other medical procedure is regulated individually in this way in Virginia; physicians ultimately decide the appropriate setting for every other surgical procedure performed in Virginia.

 Impact of regulations: 

• Cost projected by the Department of Health for a 5,000 square-foot women’s health center: 

• Estimated cost of moderate renovations: $650,000
• Estimated cost for major renovations: $2.6 million
• Additional cost per patient: up to $250 per procedure, a 71 percent increase (based on an average of $350 per procedure)

• In some cases, women’s health care centers will be forced to build entirely new buildings, which may be cost-prohibitive.

Just one month ago, the governor of Minnesota vetoed a less restrictive TRAP bill, stating in his veto message: “The legislation targets only facilities which provide abortions. If regulation of clinics were the concern, the bill should have required licensure of all clinics, not just a select few…no clinic or procedure should be the focus of special and unique regulatory requirements.”

On June 15, the Virginia Board of Health voted to amend a key provision of the proposed permanent regulations for women's health centers– the amendment means that existing women’s health care centers that provide safe, legal first-trimester abortion care will be "grandfathered in,” rather than being subjected to onerous and unnecessary forced building requirements.

On July 16, 2012, Attorney General Cuccinelli stated that his office refused to certify the Board’s vote. Thus, the proposed regulations will go back to the Board of Health for another vote on Friday, September 14. However, the Board can and should continue to vote in favor of medicine, not politics - the Attorney General does not have veto power over their decisions. On September 14, attend the Board of Health vote to demand permanent regulations that protect women's health!