To: Virginia Board of Health
Tell the Virginia Board of Health: Medicine, Not Politics
Progress Virginia
The Board of Health must repeal and rewrite the current regulations of women’s health centers to protect women’s health and preserve access to comprehensive reproductive care. Current regulations of Virginia women’s health centers are about politics, not medicine. Doctors, health care professionals, and a majority of Virginians oppose these regulations. If the regulations are not repealed and rewritten, tens of thousands of Virginia women and families will lose access to critical medical care. The current burdensome and medically-unnecessary regulations will close women’s health centers, restricting access to the comprehensive health care these centers provide, like critical cancer screenings and birth control, including abortion. I urge the Commissioner and Board of Health to rescind these politicized restrictions and begin drafting new regulations that rely on evidence-based medicine.
Why is this important?
In 2013, the Virginia Board of Health finalized onerous and medically-unnecessary restrictions designed close women’s health centers that provide comprehensive reproductive health care, like cancer screenings and birth control, as well as safe, legal first-trimester abortion. The Board ignored the advice of medical experts and the input of thousands of Virginians, instead bowing to political influences intent on shutting down women's health centers. The Department of Health is now reviewing these restrictions and will decide whether they should be rewritten. Join us in submitting a public comment and tell the Health Commissioner and Board of Health to repeal and rewrite these politically-motivated restrictions to protect women's health and safety by relying on medicine, not politics.