Regulatory changes to the Board of Health typically take up to two years to implement. But state officials have been rushing to adopt emergency rules after the General Assembly voted this spring to mandate that the rules be written no more than 280 days after the bill was signed into law.
McDonnell, who repeatedly praised the General Assembly’s decision to regulate clinics, can alter the regulations. His spokesman, Jeff Caldwell, said the governor’s office will carefully review the regulations.
The emergency rules will remain in effect while permanent regulations are crafted.
Abortion-rights groups have said they fear the regulations could force the closure of most of the state’s clinics by requiring cost-prohibitive renovations that have nothing to do with protecting women’s health.
Jessica Honke, public policy director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said the group was disappointed that the health department “apparently has ignored sound science and drafted regulations designed to limit access to safe, legal abortion services.” She said the draft rules were “onerous and go well beyond” existing regulations in other states.
The extensive physical plant requirements, which include covered entranceways, are intended for new construction, not existing health structures. She said the rules would threaten the continued availability of safe, legal first trimester abortions in “multiple locations” across Virginia.
Putting clinics out of business, the groups have argued, is the real goal of abortion opponents and elected officials who have pushed for the regulations.
Many health centers say most of their services are for primary and preventive care, such as cancer screenings, prenatal care and HIV/AIDS tests. About 25,000 abortions were performed in Virginia last year, including those at hospitals and doctor’s offices, according to the Health Department.
Virginia state health officials had told health center operators that the rules were going to be modeled on an updated version of rules adopted by South Carolina, which has some of the nation’s more restrictive rules, activists said.
Among the state’s 46 pages of requirements, for example, is one that says sinks must have hands-free faucets and others that govern air flow and temperature in clinics.
Activists have said those restrictions are intended to make it harder for clinics to operate.
Jordan Goldberg of the Center for Reproductive Rights said this week that it is premature to say whether abortion-rights groups are likely to challenge the Virginia regulations in court.
Elsewhere in the region, the District is restricted by Congress from using its own Medicaid money to fund abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape and incest. Maryland officials are proposing regulations that focus broadly on safety and sanitation in abortion clinics but allow each facility to be treated differently.
The Virginia Board of Health regulated abortion clinics from 1981 to 1984, when former governor Charles S. Robb (D) ended the practice.
The Post Most: LocalMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Loading...
Comments