WITHOUT fail, every year a piece of legislation is introduced during the Virginia General Assembly session endearingly dubbed the "TRAP" bill, or Target Regulations for Abortion Providers. This bill would require any medical facility providing 25 or more abortions per year to comply with regulatory requirements of an ambulatory surgery center. Every year this bill dies in a subcommittee.
The regulations that this bill outlines, targeted only to abortion providers (and not other medical offices that perform minor surgeries on other parts of the body), include nuanced specifics regarding everything from the size of the surgical rooms to width of the hallways so that they are large enough to accommodate the passing of two gurneys. As the president of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge noted during one such subcommittee hearing, the Planned Parenthood here in Charlottesville only even owns just one gurney, and it has never been used. Were it ever to pass, however, this would effectively shut down the majority of the state's abortion providers because they do not have the resources or means to comply with these outlandish standards (with the exception of the Planned Parenthood here in Charlottesville and one in Northern Virginia).
Couched as a sincere concern with women's safety and life during this minor surgery, taking even more than a cursory glance at the language, history and implications of this legislation, it becomes clear that anti-choice extremists are not so cleverly hiding their true intentions with the introduction of this bill. This implies a troubling trend towards underhandedly attacking seemingly the more benign aspects of reproductive health providers -- the building and zoning regulations -- while at the same time claiming that the debate is not about the legality of abortion but rather the health of the women and communities who use the services in clinics that provide abortions.
The bill's sponsor, Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, does not care about women's health. He cares about stopping abortion by any means necessary, and more than that, he wants to end sex outside of the context of heterosexual marriage. This, after all, is the same man who sought to ban the sale of emergency contraception -- one of the most effective ways to prevent unintended pregnancy (and resulting abortions) in the case of failed contraception or forced sex -- on Virginia college campuses a few years ago.
My experience interacting with those who claim to be pro-life has had some striking similarities to the way that Marshall goes about changing the sexual culture of America. More than once I attempted to connect with the members of the University's "pro-life" group concerning a forum on comprehensive sexual health education as a way to reduce abortions. And more than once, I was ignored. In one e-mail from a member of their listserv, I was called a "joke" and told that I should "learn more about the pro-life movement" if I honestly thought that they would be interested in something as drastic as a moderated discussion on the issue.
Similarly, far-right members of our state and national governments continue to waste precious legislative time on bills that never make it out of committee and continually ignore common-sense, common-ground ways to reduce abortion. It always strikes me as ironic that the pro-life "side" of this debate that purports to care the most about ending abortion is caught up in frivolous tactics that do nothing to face up to some of the realities of why abortions happen in this county (other than just run-of-the-mill careless sexual decisions); misinformation (or none at all) about sexuality and contraception, lack of prescription coverage for hormonal birth control (while the erectile dysfunction drugs are handed out like candy) and pharmacists refusals to dispense emergency contraception.
The real advocates for women's health realize the services that Planned Parenthood and other clinics provide other than first trimester abortions; from affordable gynecological exams and birth control to on-site adoption services to evaluation and treatment of menopausal symptoms. They see the tremendous value of comprehensive sexual health education and how that is continually undercut by millions of dollars in federal funding towards abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that are not only biased and incomplete but medically inaccurate and filled with harmful gender role stereotypes and messages about the dangers of human sexuality.
Steph Shaw is a Cavalier Daily contributor and a Peer Health Educator. She is a fourth year in the College.
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