Make Public Comment and Speak Out Against TRAP!
The Board of Health needs to hear from you NOW! January 28 marks the start of the 60 day public comment period on new regulations for women's health centers that provide abortion care. If approved as written, these unnecessary and burdensome regulations could force the majority of women’s health centers in Virginia to close their doors. We need pro-choice activists like you to tell the Board that these new regulations will hurt Virginia women. Now is the time to speak up!
Call on the Board of Health to protect women’s access to reproductive health care and put a stop to politics at patient expense!
CLICK HERE to visit the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website and submit a comment to the Board of Health.
Here are some suggested talking points to use when submitting comment:
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.
Thank you for taking action to help keep Virginia's women's health centers open! You can learn more about these regulations by visiting the "Learn More” section of our website.