NARAL – Profits over Women’s Health

Women of a certain age remember the bloody coat-hanger images brandished by abortion advocates that helped topple abortion laws in all 50 states.

But now that getting rid of unborn infants has been legal in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973, there’s considerably less concern about women’s health.

For example, pro-choice groups insist that abortions should be treated just like any other medical procedure. So why is NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia executive director Tarina Keene livid now that the Virginia Board of Health is doing exactly that?

After a standing-room-only public hearing lasting more than four hours, the board voted 12-1 last week to require the 22 abortion clinics performing first-trimester abortions in Virginia to meet the same medical standards as other ambulatory surgical centers in the commonwealth.

The new regulations, which will go into effect Jan. 1, require abortion clinics to have a licensed physician present when women are put under general anesthesia, submit to unannounced inspections, develop a plan for emergency care, and report any complications to the state Health Department. These are basic safety measures recommended by most medical experts…Abortion advocates like Keene are upset because they know that making abortions safer will cut deeply into the clinics’ bottom line. When push comes to shove, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia chooses abortion industry profits over the safety and well-being of women it purportedly represents.

Ironically, it was left to Keene’s pro-life counterpart in Virginia to make the case for the tougher new standards.

“A woman from Virginia Beach died in a Philadelphia abortion clinic run by the same individual who is operating unregulated clinics in our commonwealth. There is no watchdog,” said Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, the nation’s oldest pro-life group.