Herring announces TRAP repeal bill

State Sen. Mark Herring (D-Loudoun) announced Wednesday that he is introducing legislation to repeal the so-called ‘TRAP’ legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2011. The ‘TRAP’ legislation imposes new costly and unnecessary regulations on women’s health care centers in Virginia.

“In 2011, the Republicans did real damage to Virginia’s women by passing burdensome regulations on health care centers that provide services to thousands of women across the Commonwealth,” said Herring, a candidate for the Democratic Party attorney general nomination.

“Now that the damage is done, they say they don’t want to discuss these issues again.  Well we don’t accept that. We are going to fight to fix what they have done.”

Herring took aim at the Republican-controlled General Assembly for their concerted effort to make health care more difficult to access and more expensive for Virginia women.

“At every opportunity, rather than helping the women of Virginia, Republicans used their legislative powers to make things more difficult and more expensive.  It was legislating at the height of arrogance and condescension.  It is everything that is wrong with politics today, where one Party’s righteousness of opinion was all that mattered to them and all other voices were shut out.”

Herring also criticized Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for his role in bullying the State Board of Health to abandon a grandfathering provision that would have exempted existing health care centers from the new regulations.

“Ken Cuccinelli took it upon himself to compound this assault on women.  Rather than see this legislation for what it is—a concerted effort to hinder women’s ability to access the health care they need and deserve–he saw the legislation through his ideological lens.  Never mind that this will hurt women, the important thing for the Attorney General was whether the legislation satisfied his radical agenda.”

“We are going to put patient safety and well-being first. We are going to listen to doctors and medical experts across the state that have come out against Cuccinelli’s bullying efforts.  And we are going to act, because if we don’t, women across the Commonwealth will feel the effects of this right-wing crusade against women’s health care.”

“Sen. Herring has been a champion for reproductive rights in the Commonwealth,” Tarina Keene of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia said.  “His legislation to exempt women’s health centers from the most burdensome and unnecessary construction requirements will protect women’s rights and ensure that thousands of Virginian women do not lose access to essential medical care. His bill rectifies this unprecedented burden and ensures that reproductive health centers receive the same treatment as all other regulated facilities.”