Stephanie Schutte
Dear Editor,
This year’s General Assembly has been considering over twenty bills concerning women’s health and reproductive rights. Most of these bills seek to restrict women’s reproductive healthcare options, such as contraception and abortion services. HB 2784, a bill requiring abortion providers to meet the licensing standards of ambulatory surgery centers or outpatient surgical hospitals, is not only a threat to women’s reproductive rights, but an insult to women in
general. The restrictions HB 2784 would place on abortion providers if it became law are burdensome and unnecessary. First trimester abortions-the only type performed in clinics or doctor’s offices-are among the safest of all medical and surgical procedures performed routinely in physicians’ offices; yet they
are being singled out in this bill. While the bill’s supporters claim its merit, their arguments only mask the bill’s true intention-to severely limit women’s reproductive healthcare choices. If passed, HB 2784 would shut down facilities that cannot meet
its onerous requirements, including 18 of the 20 abortion providers in Virginia! This bill is not about women’s health. It is about restricting women’s access to a full range of healthcare services. Still worse, it presents the false impression that it seeks
to improve women’s healthcare, while in reality, its goal is to dramatically limit women’s reproductive
healthcare options. If legislators really want to reduce unintended pregnancies and make abortion rare, they would expand access to contraception by passing
the contraceptive equity bill. Instead, they killed the bill last week. HB 2784 has been passed by the House, and will now be considered by the Senate. As I follow the proceedings of the General Assembly, I am shocked, angered, and saddened. Are legislators willing to put women’s lives at risk by returning to
“back alley” abortions, force an increase in the number of unintended pregnancies without the means to assist parents, and take away women’s freedom to make choices about their own bodies under the guise of improving women’s healthcare?!
Sincerely, Stephanie Schutte