Virginia to reconsider rules for abortion clinics

The Virginia Board of Health is poised to deliver a blow to abortion rights advocates Friday when it decides whether to apply contentious new regulations to existing abortion facilities.

The board in June passed new, stricter standards for the clinics that perform abortions, requiring some of them to meet the same code requirements as hospitals, including wider hallways, larger operating rooms and bigger parking lots. But the board then exempted all existing clinics from those new rules, roiling abortion opponents.