Anti-Choice "TRAP"

Call on Governor McDonnell to protect women's access to reproductive health care and put a stop to the politics at patient expense!

In March, Governor McDonnell signed Senate Bill 924, which classifies women's health centers in the state as a category of hospitals. These laws are called "TRAP laws,” which stands for Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers.

The Board of Health, under pressure from the attorney general's office, voted on September 15, 2011 to approve the regulations drafted by the Virginia Department of Health. Learn more about the regulations approved by the Board of Health.

Women's health centers in Virginia will now be subject to new burdensome regulations that threaten the continued availability of safe, legal first-trimester abortion and comprehensive reproductive health care throughout the state.

The regulations approved by the Board of Health now go before Governor McDonnell. We call on the governor to protect women's access to reproductive health care by rejecting these regulations.

Join us as we urge the governor to reject these new regulations as dangerous for Virginia women!

Contact Governor McDonnell to urge him to stand with Virginia women, and not place their lives and health in danger by pursuing a narrow, political agenda.

Call the governor's office at 804-786-2211 or email here.

Here are some suggested talking points to use when contacting the governor:

• Politically-motivated regulations that make it more difficult for health centers to provide high quality health care only make it harder for women and couples to access critical reproductive health care services, including life-saving cancer screenings, family planning, STI testing and treatment, and continued safe, legal abortion care.
• The regulations - specifically the time and resources required to physically alter health centers for no medical reason - are likely to increase financial barriers/hurdles for patients as well as reduce women's ability to find a health care provider.
• At a time when women need more access to affordable, high quality health care, not less, we're disappointed to see politics as usual by your administration. Low-income women and rural women will have even less access to safe abortion care and family planning services.