The War on Women suffered a welcomed defeat 
recently. The Virginia Board of Health voted 11-4 to discard restrictions on abortion clinics that required costly hospital-style building regulations (such as wider hallway and doorways) which serve no medical purpose and cause many clinics to shut down.
This oppressive law passed the Virginia General Assembly in 2011. After several public hearings the board decided to “grandfather” in existing clinics in June 2013, allowing them to operate without the onerous regulations. This decision was reversed three months later after bullying by the then states Attorney General, who threatened to withhold legal counsel in any litigation resulting from lack of regulation. In 2014 a new governor directed the board to review the regulations.
The Board stated the law was unconstitutional following the Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down similar regulations in Texas. The Court indicated that these laws were designed to reduce women’s ability to access their constitutionally protected rights to abortion-nothing more.
Justice Breyer wrote for the majority decision:
“Abortions taking place in an abortion facility are safe — indeed, safer than numerous procedures that take place outside hospitals and to which Texas does not apply its surgical-center requirements … Nationwide, childbirth is 14 times more likely than abortion to result in death, but Texas law allows a midwife to oversee childbirth in the patient’s own home.”
These laws and regulations are known as TRAP laws (targeted restrictions of abortion providers). They are being used in a campaign to eliminate abortion access in many states. They masquerade as ordinary health regulations while disproportionately affecting poor and women of color, by shutting down clinics and forcing women to travel hundreds of miles to a clinic or carry the pregnancy to term.
Abortion is an individual choice and a right that all women have to govern our own bodies. It was a long hard battle in the streets that led to the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion–it was not handed down to us by the courts. Likewise, this victory is not a gift from the Health Board, rather it reflects the majority of people who are pro-choice and have been struggling to defend a women’s right to choose for decades.
A minority of the population has sought since Roe to force their views on us, to take back our rights for their own political gains. Together, united and strong, we must continue to fight for our rights. Only a loud, clear, massive movement in the streets will overturn all the restrictions meant to chip at and take away abortion and contraceptive health care altogether. Join us to protect women’s lives everywhere!
