Speak out by submitting comments to the Board of Health
Now that the governor has signed the temporary regulations for women’s health centers, the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health is looking ahead to the permanent regulatory process. In the permanent regulatory process, the Board of Health will decide which regulations are placed on women’s health centers when the temporary regulations expire. The Department of Health has proposed permanent regulations identical to the temporary regulations. You can learn more about these regulations at the "Learn More” section of our website.
Call on the Board of Health to protect women’s access to reproductive health care and put a stop to the politics at patient expense! The opportunity to submit comment during this phase of the process expires at 11:59 pm on February, 15, 2012.
Here are some suggested talking points to use when contacting the Board of Health:
The regulations threaten the continued availability of safe, legal first-trimester abortion and preventive reproductive health care in multiple locations throughout the state.
Extensive, burdensome requirements for clinic buildings that are unrelated to the services health centers provide and have no proven medical benefit will 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. Women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less.
If regulations placed on women's health centers are based upon evidence-based medical practices that advance the public health, then women in the Commonwealth will be able to maintain access to vital health care from trusted medical providers.
Medically inappropriate and unnecessarily burdensome regulations would 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. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. 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.
It is my hope that the regulations will be amended to be based purely on medicine and science and should not impede women's access to essential health care.