As I am a fence sitter on the abortion issue, and willing to realize that in some cases there just aren’t any perfect answers, I am going to argue this from perceived hypocrisy.
Sometimes it’s the right I complain of.
The regulations passed here are summed up as “designed to close three abortion clinics.”
In my opinion that is an entirely inappropriate summation and satisfactory only to the biased.
Should I presume that there never is an abortion clinic ever at any time that should be shut down?
Those in favor of abortion frequently talk about the importance of public access to SAFE and legal abortion clinics. Does this not imply that if an abortion clinic is UNSAFE the advocate would be in favor of closing it or fixing it so that women are not subject to substandard procedures and facilities?
In this case, the new regulations, whatever the perceived motivation, were (I confess that I haven’t read the new law itself) reported in the news to concern whether the buildings were adequate according to medical standards.
One issue was that doors were too small to fit a gurney through. I think that one is entirely legitimate. On first blush, I thought one was unreasonable–the requirement for a certain number of square feet for Janitor’s closets. But then I considered that medical facilities DO HAVE an interest in cleanliness, and figured that too small of closets (can’t dump the mopwater without splashing the trash bags) could plausibly impede cleanliness, and whether this is unreasonable or not would depend on square footage required. If it’s 50 square feet, ok. If it’s 500 that is unreasonable. And if the number 50 is chosen and the square footage of janitor’s closets in the clinics was 49, I’d be awfully suspicious.
Having doors wide enough to accept gurneys is certainly within reason for a goal of SAFE access to abortion. Abortion is life threatening, sometimes they do go wrong. If an abortion goes wrong, the speed in which a patient is transported to the hospital may be crucial, as well as how gently she can be moved. I agree completely with this idea. One wonders whether those complaining are in favor of small substandard doors instead?
There may be something in the law that is unreasonable, but I haven’t heard it yet.
On this one, the abortion supporters appear to be the hypocrites by demanding SAFE abortions but complaining if a law is passed concerning the SAFETY of the clinics, if it happens to close clinics.
BTW, one of those three clinics was immediately licensed and open for business legally and SAFELY, so claims that it shut down all three are false.