The Virginia Board of Health succumbed to pressure from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and pro-life advocates Friday and voted to force existing abortion providers to meet stringent new standards that abortion-rights advocates said could put some of those clinics out of business.
The ruling is a complete reversal from June when the board chose to exempt existing facilities from new rules that require clinics performing five or more first-trimester abortions per month to meet the same building code requirements as newly constructed hospitals. That will include larger operating rooms, wider hallways and bigger parking lots — potentially costly changes that abortion-rights advocates call a backdoor attempt to end legal abortion in Virginia.
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