Dr. Karen Remley
In a polite but pointed letter, Dr. Karen Remley, the Virginia health commissioner,
resigned Thursday over her opposition to the state's newly imposed abortion clinic rules. The resignation is effective immediately. The clinic rules were approved by the state board of health Sept. 26 and immediately certified by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Among other things, they require all abortion clinics to meet the same health and construction standards as new hospitals. That means everything from doorway widths to room sizes.
As is true in other states, the rules were specifically designed to close as many as possible of the state's 20 clinics that provide abortions. It's just one of many techniques anti-choice advocates have sought to get around Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling making abortion legal nationwide. The Virginia General Assembly passed the rules in its most recent legislative session during which it also sought to force all women seeking abortions to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds. That proposal was shot down after a nationwide outcry and protests by women representatives on the floor of the assembly. The board of health originally voted to exempt abortion clinics from the rules, but under threats from Cuccinelli, it reversed course.
Remley was appointed by former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and reappointed by Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell when he came into office in 2010. In her letter to him, she wrote:
I personally committed to you when I accepted your appointment that I would lower abortion rates in our state by both the application of evidence based approaches and also the thoughtful implementation of abortion regulation if authorized to do so the the General Assembly and signed into law by yourself. I have honored those commitments on both accounts. I have worked to guarantee the process of survey and licensure would be fairly and thoughtfully applied across the Commonwealth. As of today, all twenty abortion facilities that are eligible for licensing have been inspected, where necessary, plans of correction were received and approved, and within the next few days all will be fully lcensed for the coming year.
Unfortunately, how specific sections of the Virginia Code pertaining to the development and enforcement of these regulations have been and continue to be interpreted has created an environment in which my ability to fulfill my duties is compromise and in good faith I can no longer serve in my role.
Dr. Remley has discovered what reproductive rights activists have known for a long time. Forced-birthers cannot be reasoned with, cannot be negotiated with, cannot be expected to stop until they have achieved their ultimate goal, that being an end to abortions for all but affluent Americans (who will always have a choice) and, of course, the occasional member of their own family. Their extremist authoritarianism has never been in doubt by those on the front lines in the continuing battle over reproductive rights in which abortion providers wear bulletproof vests and are made to leap through increasingly more stringent regulations to provide a basic health procedure to women who choose one.
Chalk up another victory for those who think every women's uterus should be controlled by the state.