Planned Parenthood and abortion-rights advocates may have lost the battle over the implementation of new Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities, but now the organization is targeting the gubernatorial campaign of the man they say is responsible for those new laws.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is now the recipient of Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC’s “Gynotician of the Year Award.”
The regulations require health inspections, and they hold abortion clinics to new health and safety standards that Planned Parenthood's Cianti Stewart-Reid says are irrational. She says the state Board of Health was ready to allow exceptions for older clinics, but when the Attorney General stepped in, it reversed its decision:
"It means potentially that women's health centers will close because they won't be able to meet those onerous restrictions. One center has already closed in the Hampton Roads area," said Stewart-Reid.
But the Attorney General’s spokesman, Brian Gottstein, says despite how Cuccinelli may feel personally, his position on this is totally professional:
"And we've said time and time again is that all that he's been doing with these clinic regulations--with any other regulations--is making sure that the government is following the law that the General Assembly has set forth," said Gottstein.
Stewart-Reid says they're not against holding facilities accountable and making sure women are safe. But she believes many of these regulations have nothing to do with safety and are designed to raise operating costs of abortion clinics and force them to close.
