FRC's Tony Perkins Urges Virginia Board of Health to Adopt Safer Health Standards for Abortion Clinics

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Aug 24, 2010, 05:07 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Family Research Council President Tony Perkins today called on the Virginia Board of Health to adopt safer health standards for abortion clinics in light of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's opinion yesterday that says the board has the authority to require hospital-type standards.

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As a Louisiana state representative, Perkins authored a law in 1999 that held abortion clinics to the same standards as other medical facilities. The legislature overwhelmingly passed the law after a woman nearly died from an abortion performed in Baton Rouge.

Of Attorney General Cuccinelli's opinion, in which he wrote that the Board of Health has the authority to require hospital-like standards at abortion clinics, Perkins said:

"The attorney general's opinion is a significant step toward protecting women's health at abortion clinics. Family Research Council and the families we represent are pro-life, and pro-mother. We are just as concerned about the safety and well-being of women who visit abortion clinics as we are about their babies. If we cannot accept sub-standard care that would jeopardize women's health in other areas, such as post-natal care, we cannot accept it from abortion clinics.

"Everyone, including abortion facility operators, should be able to agree that abortion clinics should not operate with less oversight than veterinary clinics, as they do in many states. Women deserve much better.

"When I was a state representative, a TV report on the unsanitary conditions at a local abortion clinic prompted my colleagues on both sides of the abortion debate to overwhelmingly support my bill to improve the conditions of abortion facilities. If abortion clinic operators have the best interests of the women they serve at heart, they should be more than willing to support and comply with basic standards of care that other ambulatory clinics adhere to."

SOURCE Family Research Council