Virginia Joins Pro-Life Wave With Abortion Clinic Rules

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed off on permanent regulations that will hold abortion clinics to the same building standards as hospitals, joining Arizona and Michigan as states looking to tighten their abortion-facility standards to among the most stringent in the nation.

The new regulations come amid 43 abortion restrictions enacted by states last year — the second-most on record, after 92 such measures were adopted in 2011, according to a report released Wednesday by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.

About half the measures last year were passed in six states: Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. They include prohibitions on abortions after 20 weeks, when a fetus is deemed old enough to feel pain, and requirements that doctors prescribe abortion-inducing drugs in person rather than by teleconference.
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