New Virginia Law Regulating Abortion Clinics Highlights Washington's Abortion 'Wild West'

The commonwealth of Virginia just passed historic legislation that many abortion clinics have said might force them to close. What sort of radical new law is this? Some kind of abortion ban?

Actually, no. The new law simply requires “facilities in which five or more first-trimester abortions per month are performed” to now abide by some of the same regulations as “hospital facilities.” Previously clinics were only required to comply with the standards for doctors’ officers where surgeries are not performed.

Numerous abortion clinics have said that they might have to close in response. Apparently the conditions in these clinics are non-compliant with the regulations and they don't want to go to the "trouble" of complying with the abortion clinic reforms.

(Virgina already requires second trimester abortions to be performed in a hospital, which, incidentally, so does the City of Richland, Washington.)

There are three important points that Washingtonians can take away from this development:

1) It only serves to highlight how far out of the mainstream Washington State is with its "zero regulation" policy towards the abortion industry. After the Kermitt Gosnell scandal started making national headlines, which resulted in the firing of at least 6 Pennsylvania Health Department employees due to their ideologically-driven policy of "legal abortion = safe abortion" and viewing every abortionist as another Marcus Welby, we checked with the Washington State Department of Health to see if they were reviewing their abortion clinic inspection regime to avoid a similarly disastrous situation for women and children on the West Coast.

Their response stunned us. Washington has no policy of inspections of abortion clinics. And Washington has no regulations of abortion clinics. And there were no plans to review any of that! The trend everywhere else in the United States, even among pro-abortion liberals, is towards revisiting abortion clinic "deregulation" loopholes and replacing it with with common-sense reforms. Washington continues to earn its reputation as the Abortion State.

2) The bill to regulate pregnancy centers out of existence has been sold by some Democrat legislators under the false claim that it would just be regulating them "the same way abortion clinics are". The fact is that abortion clinics are NOT regulated as facilities, as the Department of Health has admitted.

A regulation like the Virginia one would be a great way for Planned Parenthood and the Washington abortion industry to demonstrate some good faith, and to make it so that the talking points they're feeding their servants in Olympia stop getting thrown back at them by educated citizens to humiliating effect.

3) Good laws regulating abortion can be passed without a majority by effective legislators. Despite the fact that Virginia is less of a pro-abortion, godless wasteland than Washington, the state senate is, like ours, controlled by a Democrat majority. Hence most pro-life bills, like this one, are killed in committee by the party of death.

But a clever state senator, Republican Kathy Byron, managed to get it attached as an amendment in committee to a separate bill. On the senate floor, the vote tied 20-20. The bill passed with the deciding vote from Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.

Department of Health Confirms: No Plans to Reconsider 'Wild West' Abortion Deregulation After Gosnell, Sting Tapes

First it was the story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's 'house of horrors' abortion mill splashed across newspapers and TVs across the country. Then Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest chain of abortion clinics, was caught in another series of undercover sting videos. Many Washington State residents assumed that their Health Department would automatically step up oversight plans of our state's abortion industry to make sure this type of thing was not happening in the Evergreen State.

But we were shocked to learn, after asking the Department of Health, that they plan absolutely no action or investigations in response.

Donn T. Moyer, spokesperson for the DOH, thought we'd be satisfied with an assurance that "we’re unaware of anything in our state remotely like the Pennsylvania case you cited."

"The Pennsylvania situation is a unique criminal case and there’s no evidence it’s happening here, so that case has not inspired any new review of the rules in Washington. We’re certain if complaints of that nature came to light in Washington, we would investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action."