Anti-Choice "TRAP"

Anti-choice state politicians in Virginia want to outlaw abortion, regardless of the woman's situation. They will stop at nothing to make it harder for women to access abortion.

Earlier this year, Governor McDonnell signed Senate Bill 924 into law. This law classifies women's health centers in Virginia as a category of hospital, meaning they are now subject to new regulations.

These politically-motivated laws, called "TRAP laws," (Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers), single out doctors that provide abortion care. TRAP laws have nothing to do with promoting the safe delivery of healthcare for women and everything to do with restricting Virginians' access to safe, legal abortion.

While most new regulations go through a lengthy initial process, the governor imposed an "emergency" process for these new rules. That means the chance for deliberation and public input have been severely limited. The Department of Health released a draft of regulations that would become the strictest, most medically-irrelevant restrictions on abortion providers in any state in the nation. On September 15, despite compelling pro-choice testimony about the negative impact these regulations would have, the state Board of Health accepted the draft and moved the regulations forward.

On December 29, 2011, Governor McDonnell signed the emergency regulations as drafted into law. While the emergency regulations begin to be implemented, the permanent regulatory process is now underway.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and our partners in the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women's Health are working to make sure the permanent regulations on Virginia's abortion providers will be based on medicine and women's health, not politics and anti-choice ideology.

Throughout the implementation of the emergency regulations and the permanent regulatory process, we'll need pro-choice activists like you to help us constantly educate Virginians about the regulatory process and the impact that new medically-unnecessary regulations on abortion providers could have on women's access to healthcare.

Here's just some of what you can do to help:

• Submit an official public comment online to the Board of Health calling on them to protect women's rights and access to comprehensive reproductive health care when creating the permanent regulations on abortion providers. (Deadline is February 15, 2012!)
• Attend the public hearing about these regulations on February 3, 2012 in Alexandria.
  
• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper speaking out about how new regulations undermine women's health. (Contact the Coalition to find out how!)
• Educate your friends, family, classmates and colleagues about this issue, utilizing your blogs and social networks to spread the word far and wide. You can learn more about the regulations and see news coverage of the issue at the Coalition website.
• "Like" the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women's Health on Facebook or follow the @VACoalitionWH on Twitter for updates.