Chipping Away at Roe in Virginia...

The Attorney General for the state of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, who is anti-choice, is trying to circumvent the general assembly by "issu[ing] a legal opinion allowing greater restrictions on abortion clinics, drawing swift criticism from providers who say it could cause some of the facilities to close."

The opinion, issued late Friday, provides legal guidance for the state Board of Health, and does not require legislative action. But pro-choice advocates accuse Cuccinelli of trying to circumvent the General Assembly, which has considered but failed to pass further restrictions on abortion clinics for at least eight years.

"We've been waiting for the attorney general to take on abortion providers and it looks like this is his first pitch,'' said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. "These so called regulations are only an attempt to shut down abortion clinics in the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Essentially, the opinion redefines abortion clinics as medical-surgical facilities, which would create much higher thresholds in terms of required equipment and space. Clinics have previous been "regulated the same way as offices where patients receive oral or plastic surgery."

The cost to make the potential changes to meet the requirements of the new designation could put clinics out of business, or cause them to raise their prices, passing on the burden of the new policy to abortion-seeking women.

Keene said if the Board of Health imposes the restrictions, 17 of the 21 abortion providers in the state would most likely have to close their doors.

Chip, chip, chip...

Meanwhile, the office of Democratic Senator from Virginia Jim Webb has not issued a press release condemning this overt assault on women's healthcare. The office of Democratic Senator from Virginia Mark Warner has not issued a press release either.

Again, for the twelve millionth or whatever time I ask: Just how fucking stupid do the Democrats think feminist/womanist/pro-choice voters are? Because all the chest-beating about how they're the party that will defend Roe doesn't matter for shit when they evidently don't give a fuck about protecting it from being rendered an impotent statute.

It's frankly bad enough that the Democratic President, leader of an ostensibly pro-choice platform, can't be arsed to make a public statement about these encroachments on the basic bodily autonomy of half the nation's population, but the fact that the two Democratic Senators from the state in which it's happening don't even feel obliged to get one of their lackeys to write up a perfunctory press release is truly appalling.

[H/T to Shaker Museclio.]