Medicine should trump politics

October 22, 2012

Jeff Schapiro editorializes in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Karen Remley's resignation as health commissioner in a perceived protest over Virginia's crackdown on abortion clinics means there's one less woman in Gov. Bob McDonnell's binder. Her departure this past week could not have come at a worse time for McDonnell: the final stage of a bitter struggle, in which the guy Mitt Romney passed over for VP is frequently front and center, to prevent a Barack Obama repeat in Virginia that could decide the presidency. Remley's resignation is the latest Richmond-specific data point in a string of them since winter that further perfects the record of GOP hostility for abortion rights, putting Republicans at a further disadvantage with those Virginians whose votes, according to public polls, count the most this year: women, in particular, those in the suburbs."

Progressive Point: Politicians should never interfere in the private health care decisions that should be between a woman, her family, and her faith. It's deplorable that Attorney General Cuccinelli and Governor McDonnell are attacking women's health, restricting access to health clinics, threatening to criminalize some forms of birth control and trying to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds. Now they have compromised the ability of dedicated Virginia public servants to promote the health of all Virginians.

It's never been clearer that McDonnell and Cuccinelli's regulations are designed to limit access to safe and legal abortion in the Commonwealth. We need leaders who share our values, who will focus on the issues important to us, and who put our needs above these divisive and harmful political agendas. Cuccinelli and McDonnell should be ashamed of what their right-wing agenda and bullying of the Board of Health has cost Virginia.

Get the Facts:

• Karen Remley, now former health commissioner, told Governor McDonnell "she could not 'in good faith' run the Health Department, carrying out new regulations -- mandated by the legislature, approved by McDonnell and muscled by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli -- that compel the state's 20 abortion clinics to comport themselves as hospitals." (Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 21, 2012)


• The recent legislation, signed by Gov. McDonnell, singles out women's health centers that provide abortions and forces them to comply with hospital standards. No other outpatient clinic in Virginia, including those performing oral and cosmetic surgery, are forced to adhere to these standards. The underlying purpose is to force clinic closure through requiring unaffordable construction. (Washington Post, July 27, 2012)


• In addition to family planning services, Virginia's women's health clinics provide life-saving cancer screenings and health care services like STD screenings. (ProgressVA, June 14, 2012)


• Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Bob McDonnell's party platform "salutes" Virginia's new anti-abortion legislation that originally required women to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound probe if they sought to pursue their constitutionally protected right to choose. (Washington Post, August 21, 2012)

Forward to a Friend via email

Share on Facebook

Tweet it: Medicine should trump politics http://bit.ly/RgOLhC via @ProgressVA