Once the Board of Health adopts the regulations Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli again will review them for “certification,” ensuring that they line up with constitutional and Virginia Code requirements. You may remember the craziness that ensued at the June Board meeting and the changes the Board made to the regulations, for which they have no authority. That action necessitated this additional meeting.

Pro-abortion activists see this as their final shot at preventing commonsense safety standards from being implemented at abortion centers and they are doing everything they can to derail the regulations. One pro-abortion organization has even gone so far as to call for the recusal of one of the Board members, stating that “his religious and personal views should not affect the women of Virginia and their access to healthcare.” This is the pro-abortion movement’s unabashed attempt to silence those who dare exercise their faith in the public square.

Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other pro-abortion groups have told their members to show up at the Board of Health meeting at 7:30 a.m. in order to guarantee themselves a seat in the “seating-is-limited” board room and to block pro-life attendees from equal participation. Pro-abortion activists are hoping for a repeat of the last board meeting at which their angry outbursts, hissing and booing disrupted the meeting (see picture below) and temporarily prevented the abortion center safety regulations from passing. We will not let this happen again!

We must show the Board of Health that we are pro-life and we are the majority. Please, add Friday, September 14 to your calendar and forward this e-mail to your pro-life friends. Plan to arrive at the Perimeter Center (9960 Mayland Drive, Richmond, Va., 23233) at 7:30 a.m. to prevent pro-abortion activists from filling the room and silencing your voice. We encourage you to bring a handmade sign showing your support for life. The meeting is scheduled to adjourn at 3:00 p.m., so depending on when the vote is held, this may become a day-long event. Please contact us if you have additional questions (804-343-0010 or vafamily@familyfoundation.org).

Thank you in advance for your attendance and for your willingness to stand in support of life. Together, we look forward to the coming day when Virginia will have permanent health and safety standards for the abortion industry for the first time in more than two decades. We are confident that those regulations will be the strongest possible.

I guess it’s all about where you spend your money.

Interestingly, today, the people of North Dakota will vote on an amendment to their state constitution that protects religious liberty and would ensure that faith-based organizations that faithfully and effectively provide services to the poor, needy, underserved and orphaned are not discriminated against by the state.

And guess what organization is the largest single financial contributor to the opposition to the amendment?

Planned Parenthood. To the tune of $1 million!

To put that in perspective, the ACLU has given one-tenth that amount and the largest individual donation from an actual citizen of North Dakota is $1,000.

NARAL, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and other radically secular and pro-abortion groups are also working to oppose religious freedom, but not nearly to the level of Planned Parenthood. Of course, Planned Parenthood has a budget of over $1 billion (a third of which comes from you, the taxpayer) to throw around.

Unfortunately, it appears unwilling to spend some of that money toward improving health standards at its abortion centers in Virginia, or elsewhere, but instead are spending it on opposing religious liberty.

This effort exposes Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry as being just as anti-religious liberty as their leftist friends. One of their primary targets has been faith-based pregnancy resource centers that offer alternatives to abortion, real support for women in crisis, and life-affirming counseling. They are the biggest threat to the abortion industry’s bottom line, and Planned Parenthood has sought to shut these facilities down all over the country, including here in Virginia.

Interestingly, opponents have also argued that the amendment would allow “conservative church entities to opt out of anti-discrimination laws and other legislation intended to advance the public good” (anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation). Yet, we’ve been told over and over again in Virginia by supporters of so-called anti-discrimination laws that churches and religious organizations are safe and not their target.

Not that we believed them.

Please pray for the people of North Dakota today as they vote on this important — and precedent-setting amendment.