Virginia health board agrees to move ahead with review of abortion clinic rules

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This has LGBT content.

Virginia health board agrees to move ahead with review of abortion clinic rules

By Jenna Portnoy December 4 at 9:41 PM @jennaportnoy

RICHMOND — The Virginia Board of Health decided Thursday to move forward with a review of rules for abortion clinics, the latest step in a lengthy process that could roll back controversial regulations finalized last year.
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Still, the antiabortion contingent remains strong in Virginia. On Thursday, activists on both sides began lining up in a suburban Richmond office park before 6 a.m. to make their position known to the health board. Some of them — including E.W. Jackson, the GOP’s 2013 nominee for lieutenant governor — went so far as to call attention to the state’s health commissioner, Marissa Levine, because she is transgender.

“This is the transgender commissioner of health appointed by Gov. [McAuliffe],” Jackson, a minister from Chesapeake, wrote in a tweet that also featured a picture of Levine. “Formerly a married MAN (Mark) with children, now Marissa. Needless to say — very pro-abortion.” ... After the board of health meeting, Jackson said he merely intended to draw a connection between what he considers to be causes of the left. ... “I do see a close relationship between the whole LGBT movement and the whole pro-abortion movement,” he said, adding: “I do not believe in personal attacks.”
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Levine, a family physician, has a masters of public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, received her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her family practice residency at the University of Virginia, according to a biography provided by the state.

Jenna Portnoy covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post.

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