Last year, the Virginia Board of Health took the initial steps necessary to roll back a harsh set of regulations imposed on abortion clinics by the McDonnell administration. In a few days it will vote again, all but finalizing the repeal.
This is the correct thing to do. The regulations — which impose hospital-like standards by dictating hallway widths, ventilation standards, and much more — are unnecessary to protect patient safety. If they were necessary, then the commonwealth would impose them on all outpatient surgical centers, instead of only those that provide abortions. Abortion clinics have a strong safety record — and most abortions are considerably more safe than some other, less regulated procedures, such as colonoscopies.
In one respect the board will simply be signing off on a decision that has been taken out of its hands. In a major ruling earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a set of regulations imposed on abortion clinics in Texas. Those rules also required abortion clinics to meet hospital-like standards and to have contractual connections to nearby hospitals. The court’s ruling effectively invalidates Virginia’s regulations as well.
The ruling is not likely to end the debate over abortion, any more than the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade did. But efforts by opponents of abortion to stem the practice are being increasingly hemmed in. Anti-abortion lawmakers in the General Assembly will not give up, but they will now have a much smaller arsenal to work with.
