Last week a state delegate and an attorney general got together and decided that it is again time for the Commonwealth of Virginia to regulate abortions.
This may sound like small potatoes—of course there is still a federal mandate permitting abortions, and there will be plenty of abortions performed in Virginia even if the Attorney General’s suggestions are adopted—but it is a step forward nonetheless.
Virginia regulated abortion clinics in the years following Roe v. Wade, prior to the term of Governor Chuck Robb (1982-6). Robb was known as a moderate Democrat (one of only eleven Democrats to vote for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ nomination); but on the question of abortion his moderation was not in evidence.
Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall thought that the time was right to return abortion regulation to Virginia, and he asked for the Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s opinion on the legality of the move. Cuccinelli, a Roman Catholic with seven children, determined that Virginia “has the authority to promulgate regulations for facilities in which first trimester abortions are performed . . . so long as the regulations adhere to constitutional limitations.” Abortion clinics and dental and plastic surgery offices are not currently required to be licensed in Virginia—that grouping says something about how pro-choice people view abortions!—although the doctors who work in those settings must be licensed.
Supporters of the right to life see the move as a matter of course. As the Attorney General’s spokesman put it, “The state has long regulated outpatient surgical facilities and personnel to ensure a certain level of protection for patients. There is no reason to hold facilities providing abortion services to any lesser standard for their patients.”
State regulation of abortion clinics has stood up in court before; South Carolina successfully underwent a federal challenge to its 1995 amendment to existing law. Following the challenge and implementation of the new regulations, the state saw a marked decrease in abortions and abortion clinics. Though it is impossible to say how much of the decrease was due to the amendment to the law, the correlation is suggestive.
So yes—one small step for the state of Virginia. Let us pray for a favorable review of the Attorney General’s opinion!
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