RECENTLY, The Cavalier Daily has printed articles within both the opinion and news sections concerning the Virginia Board of Health's recent 12-1 vote to implement new abortion regulations, deemed Virginia's TRAP Laws (Targeted Regulations against Abortion Providers).
These "emergency" regulations derive from an extension of Senate Bill 924, which required the Board to issue regulations related to infection prevention and disaster preparedness for hospitals, nursing homes and certified nursing facilities, as well as those facilities that provide five or more women with first-trimester abortions per month, according to the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women's Health website. In other words, regulations that have been deemed "design requirements on women's health centers" are targeting the functioning of 24 women's health clinics in Virginia that currently provide services including, but not limited to abortion.
As The Cavalier Daily's Sept. 19 article, "Board approves abortion clinic regulations," states, the only dissenter at the Board's Sept. 15 meeting was James Edmonson. He proposed seventeen amendments to the proposed regulations, but the Board only passed three of the proposed amendments, all having to do with "patient privacy." Currently, 15 people sit on the Board, nine of whom were appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell and six by former Gov. Tim Kaine, who is currently a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. On the day of the Board's vote, however, Edmonson was the only one of Kaine's appointees who contested the regulations.
Tosha Yongling, a student speaker at last Saturday's Rally to Protest VA Trap Laws, said what irks her the most is that in Virginia clinics are only allowed to perform first-trimester abortions, not second- or third-trimester abortions, which makes the pending regulations that much more outlandish. The first-trimester abortions have a 97 percent healing rate and the process is minimally invasive and very safe. Morevoer, 86 percent of Virginia's counties lack abortion providers. Why must our elected leaders make already scant women's health clinics that much harder to access, especially when these clinics provide affordable services to women who do not have insurance or cannot afford any.
When Yongling was asked to speak at the Sept. 15 Board meeting, she recalled pro-lifers criticizing how awful abortion clinics are while neglecting to mention the multi-faceted services these clinics offer women. The discrepancy, it seems, lies in the extreme, one-dimensional viewpoint of many pro-lifers. "I want them to understand that to have a true pro-life stance, you cannot sacrifice the health of the population," Yongling declared.
The women's health clinics in Virginia provide women with many other services such as family planning, pre-natal care, education, sympathy and comfort. As Rosemary Codding of the Falls Church Healthcare Center asked, how can it be claimed that "unplanned pregnancies will not affect the family?" If a woman is faced with the choice to have an abortion or not, it is likely that either she, her family or both shall be affected by the decision.
Further, Codding asserted that her health care center is required to yield all its reports to the Virginia Department of Health. To me, this signifies that her center is taking the proper legal steps to ensure its continued survival, not trying to sidestep or skirt any requirements or laws.
This too may be old hat, but the fact is the country is in an economic recession with 6.3 percent of Virginians unemployed. Carmen Berkley, field director of Pro-Choice USA, emphasized in a speech last Saturday that the time to focus on revitalizing the economy and creating jobs is now. It is high time this country leave women and their personal choices out of the equation.
Ellie Smeal, a speaker from the Feminist Majority Foundation, ended her speech with the words, "the price of liberty is constant vigilance." In a nation that prides itself on the right of the individual, let us remind our elected leaders and government what that means - not only for the male citizens of this country, but also for the female citizens. Women are entitled to make personal choices for their own bodies and well being without the interference of "the white, rich, able-bodied heterosexual male at the top," according to Smeal. As Yongling fairly stated, these regulations are simply "an imposition of one group's morality on another." For all of you who are capable of voting, go vote on Nov. 8. Be the logical, sane individuals who choose leaders who care about the health of their citizens, not those who abuse office for political gain or turn a woman's choice into a shameful stigma.
Devon Darrow is a Viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily.
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