New abortion clinic regulations to be adopted after Board of Health vote

The Virginia Board of Health voted Thursday to adopt regulations for abortion clinics, treating them as ambulatory surgery centers and requiring them to meet hospital-type regulations. Abortion-rights activists argue that the measure is merely a way to shut down many of the state’s abortion clinics, and is motivated more for political reasons than for health-related ones.

The measure applies to any facility that provides five or more first-trimester abortions a month. Second-trimester abortions must be performed at hospitals. While changes to the Board of Health normally take up to two years for implementation, some state officials are rushing to have emergency measures adopted in the meantime.