The Democratic governor is also looking for ways to soften or suspend the rules to keep clinics open during the health board’s review, which could take more than two years. The General Assembly approved the regulations in 2011; they are set to take effect as early as June.
“I am concerned that the extreme and punitive regulations adopted last year jeopardize the ability of most women’s health centers to keep their doors open and place in jeopardy the health and reproductive rights of Virginia women,” McAuliffe said.
“This was an overtly political move,” said House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford). “The General Assembly, by law, directed the Board of Health to establish regulations to protect the health and safety of women who seek an abortion. This seems like another attempt by the McAuliffe administration to undermine a law they don’t like, and that is very troubling.”
On Monday, McAuliffe appointed five people to the 15-member health board, filling one vacancy and nudging four other members to wrap up their terms about a month early.
McAuliffe, elected with help from abortion rights groups, made no pretense of ignoring the litmus test, stating flatly that his appointees reflected his views not only on abortion but also on the need to review the clinic regulations. The five appointees “share his commitment to women’s health and support his plan to review the health center regulations,” the governor’s office announced in a written statement.
Yet there could be a political downside for McAuliffe, who takes the step as he seeks to get conservative Republicans on board with Medicaid expansion. Abortion opponents characterized McAuliffe’s move as yet another end run around the legislature.
“Whether the governor and the abortion industry like it or not, the law of Virginia requires that abortion centers have health and safety standards,” said Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia.
“The governor is not a king, but he’s doing everything within his power,” Coy said.
| Commentary |
CMA VP for Govt. Relations Jonathan
Imbody: “Trying to clarify that ‘the governor is not a king,’ the
spokesman for Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe unwittingly highlights the autocratic nature of the governor's scheme to
skirt state law on abortion clinic health and safety.“Virginia's legislature is one of dozens of state legislatures that in recent years have aimed to curb abuses and bring abortion clinics in line with reasonable health and safety requirements of similar facilities. Abortion clinic abuses uncovered in Texas, for example, included the illegal disposal of hazardous bio-medical and infectious waste, including tissue that appeared to be the partial remains of aborted babies; dirty and poorly maintained conditions inside and outside the abortion clinics; drug violations, including the illegal dumping of drug vials containing controlled substances and the availability and use of blank prescription slips; and widespread abuses of Texas’s informed consent law and the mandated 24-hour reflection period.
“Governor McAuliffe, however, is ignoring such abuses and plotting to put abortion ideology over the rule of law, seeking end-runs around the people's representatives and meanwhile stacking the state health board with abortion partisans.
“A year ago May 13, Philadelphia abortion clinic doctor Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder. Gosnell had openly operated a squalid abortion clinic, let a patient die and butchered babies born alive. The Grand Jury report cited testimony revealing that when pro-abortion governor Tom Ridge took office, ‘high-level government officials’ decided to discontinue abortion clinic inspections. ‘There was a concern that if they did routine inspections, that they may find a lot of these facilities didn’t meet [health and safety standards] and then there would be less abortion facilities...’
“When abortion politics trumps health and safety, ‘back alley abortion clinics’ and their accompanying horrors thrive. As a healthcare professional, your support of abortion clinic health and safety regulation--through testimony before legislatures, behind-the-scenes expert advice and the use of electronic, print and social media--can prove very effective.
Action
Order model state legislation that your state can adopt to protect health and safety.
Use our easy Freedom2Care form to urge your legislators to support S. 369 - Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.
Resources
CMA-led U.S. Senate taskforce report on abortion clinic regulation (access restricted to CMDA members)
After Gosnell's ''House of Horrors'': Women's Health and Abortion in America - webcast
Model clinic health and safety legislation
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