Virginia Should Remove Unconstitutional Restrictions on Abortion

Richmond, VA–Today, American Atheists and its Virginia affiliate organizations Southeastern Virginia Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists (SEVASH) and Beltway Atheists submitted testimony supporting the Reproductive Health Protection Act. The bills, SB 733 and HB 980, would remove several unconstitutional and medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion in Virginia.

This legislation would protect women’s access to reproductive health care in 3 ways:

Patients would no longer be forced to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound and follow other procedures.
Advanced practice clinicians (APCs) could perform abortion care in their scope of practice in early pregnancy. APCs are already providing abortion care in at least 15 states and Washington D.C., and the World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supports this.
There would no longer be be unnecessary targeted regulation of abortion providers (TARP), which force medical facilities performing 5 or more early abortions per month to comply with medically unnecessary building, equipment, and administrative requirements.

“Virginians should be able to get abortion care without burdensome delays and unnecessary travel,” wrote American Atheists’ Virginia State Director Larry Mendoza. “This bill is an important step to protecting access to abortion care in Virginia.”