Abortion clinic regulations spark protest in VCU Compass

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Demonstrators gather in Compass to protest new health clinic regulations.

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State regulations of abortion services draw protesters to VCU Compass. Photo by Amber-Lynn Taber.

Mechelle Hankerson
News Editor

State regulations of abortion services draw protesters to VCU Compass. Photo by Amber-Lynn Taber.

“One, two, three, four, we won’t take it anymore. Five, six, seven, eight, separate the church and state.”

On Sept. 14, with a chorus of women’s reproductive rights supporters chanting that behind them, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia partnered with the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health, protested regulations that could, according to the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health, indirectly shut down 17 of 21 state clinics that offer abortion services.

According to Katherine Greenier , the director of the Patricia M. Arnold’s Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU of Virginia, VCU was the perfect backdrop for Wednesday’s rally.

“We chose VCU because the effect that these regulations could have on the student population is something that we’re concerned about,” Greenier said.

“Students are largely uninsured or underinsured; many of them use women’s health centers in the state not just for abortion care, but for a wide array of reproductive health services that include comprehensive preventive care, and they use these centers as their primary care physicians.”

On Sept. 15, the Virginia Board of Health will vote on regulations drafted by the state Department of Health that would regulate women’s health clinics around the state.

Senate Bill 924 would require that health care providers that offer abortion services be regulated separately from normal health care providers.

The regulations are part of a law that passed in March that requires the Board of Health to issue regulations related to infection prevention and disaster preparedness for hospitals, nursing homes and certified nursing facilities. The bill also re-classified medical providers that perform more than five first trimester abortions per month as hospitals, making them subject to the regulations.

“The name of (the bill) is TRAP and the ‘t’ in TRAP stands for targeted,” said Jackie Anderson, communications director of Students for Life of America, one of the fastest-growing student pro-life groups on the country. “This is not about all health-care clinics, and what pro-abortionists think today is that this bill is targeting all women’s health care facilities. That’s not true … They’re targeting the clinics that perform abortions.

“Obviously, we’re against abortions and we’re for the bill that asks to regulate these abortion facilities.”

The Young Democrats at VCU who helped publicize the event around campus were also present to speak out against the regulations.

“These regulations affect not just those trying to get an abortion, but this affects all health in general,” said Vicki Yeroian, president of Young Democrats at VCU. “The regulations that are going to be put in place are actually more architectural … for the building, so instead of having requirements for better health services, it’s about making sure door lengths are wide enough … things that don’t need to happen right away.”

According to Greenier, the architectural regulations are unique in that more of them are meant for new construction, not pre-existing buildings.

“We have found nowhere else in the Virginia code where guidelines for new construction were being imposed on existing facilities,” she said. “They take into account that (hospitals and other outpatient facilities) are already existing facilities providing safe care.”

In addition to structural regulations, there are regulations that affect the availability of patient records to state inspectors. The regulations would allow permission to inspectors from the Department of Health to inspect facilities regardless of whether the facility is open on the given day and, according to Greenier, give the inspectors access to records with “no requirement language in the regulations that that information be kept confidential.”

This does not mean that records are made public, but Greenier said that if records fall to “unscrupulous people,”  it could put patients and providers in danger.

“More importantly, medical ethics and HPPA (Hospital Purchaser-Provider Agreenment) – federal law – requires the protection of private patient information and these regulations are conflicting with what’s in state, federal law and medical ethics,” Greenier said.

Most of the organizations opposing the bill also said it was a problem that many of the clinics that would be endangered with the regulations do not just provide abortion services, but some even provide basic health care.

“The main issue here is what’s going to happen to clinics,” said Marjorie Signer, director of communications at the DC-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The group arrived to the rally with purple shirts with the statement, “Pro-faith. Pro-family. Pro-choice.”

“The women who rely on those clinics tend to be lower income, tend to be women without access to other health care services. These clinics provide basic health care in some instances,” Signer said.

“We can … target the facilities that we know perform abortions, and that’s exactly what (these bills do),” Anderson said. “It’s not a blanket bill, and anyone who feels that way is mistaken. These are facilities that specifically do abortions, and if anyone wants to go to a facility that doesn’t do an abortion for standard health care, they’re more than welcome to do that because this bill does not affect them.”

VCU sophomore James Thompson considers himself pro-life and thinks that the regulations to end abortion services are positive.

“You can still offer (other) things if you stop doing the abortion part,” he said.

The law requires that the regulations be made on an emergency basis, making public input a rushed process. On Sept. 1, the board received draft regulations and the public have until Sept. 15 Board of Health meeting to provide written comment. Oral public comment will be allowed at the Sept. 15 meeting at the Wyndham Hotel near the Richmond International Airport.

Members of the Young Democrats at VCU helped organize the rally to protest regulations that would endanger many of the state’s facilities that offer abortion services.

In addition to organizations that represented the pro-choice side of the abortion issue, pro-life organizations were present to challenge the other side. The purpose of the rally was not simply to argue abortion, but was meant to focus on the impending regulations that will be voted on Thursday morning.

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