The abortion industry often operates under clinical standards lower than that for outpatient or cosmetic surgical standards. That may soon change in VA and pro choice advocates are screaming. From the Virginia Pilot story:
Perhaps most worrisome to clinic operators is a mandate that they must meet building standards set forth in a 2010 industry manual on the design and construction of health care facilities. Those guidelines would take precedence over the state building code. Under the regulations, examination rooms at clinics must contain at least 80 square feet of clear floor space; some operating rooms must have at least 150 square feet; and public corridors must be at least 5 feet wide - 6 feet if patients are wheeled through them on stretchers. Freund said the regulations would allow clinics to ask the state to waive operating room construction standards.
Abortion rights advocates say the regs will put several clinics out of business. But why can’t they raise their standards? And since abortion is an invasive and potentially dangerous procedure, why shouldn’t clinic safety be equivalent to other out patient surgical centers? Abortion may be legal, but its practitioners shouldn’t be specially priviledged in law.
