Va. AG threatens state health board

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RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The Virginia attorney general has threatened to revoke state legal counsel for public health officials weighing stricter abortion clinic regulations.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a staunch abortion critic, sent a memo to members of the state's Board of Health, threatening that if they do not obey a state law and force health clinics that perform abortions to make expensive upgrades to their facilities, they would have to pay for their own legal defense should anti-abortion groups sue the state.

A 2010 law mandated abortion clinics have "hospital-like" facilities.

Pro-choice groups argue a plain-text reading of the law says only new clinics would have to meet the higher standard. Anti-abortion advocates have charged that existing clinics must upgrade their facilities, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per site.

Health board members will have to decide whether to issue license renewals to the clinics that perform at least five first-trimester abortions per month and determine whether they qualify under the standard without making the structural changes to their facilities.

The board previously sided with pro-choice groups, renewing the licenses for the clinics without the repairs, but Cuccinelli refused to certify the licenses, setting the table for the dispute.

Pro-choice groups say abortion providers are being singled out, noting that other out-patient medical service providers like plastic surgeons don't have to meet the hospital-like standard.