By Dave Andrusko
The Washington Post is reporting this afternoon that the Virginia Board of Health has outlined a “speedy process for adopting emergency rules” for abortion clinics, meaning the new regulations the General Assembly passed last month will take effect by January 1, 2012.
Under the regulations abortion clinics performing more than five first-trimester abortions per month are required to abide by the same safety regulations as hospitals (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/02/virginia-close-to-enactment-of-abortion-clinic-regulations. The law requires that the rules must be written no more than 280 days after the governor does so.
Gov. McDonnell has said he will sign the bill. He has until March 29.
Post reporter Rosalind S. Helderman (who, by the way, was a merciless critic of McDonnell while he was running for governor) wrote that Health Commissioner Karen Remley said the timeframe “triggers the state’s emergency regulatory process — rather than a more plodding standard process that typically takes more than two years.”
You can read Helderman’s story at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2011/03/speedy_process_for_new_abortio.html.
I need your feedback on both Today’s News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha