Most clinics cannot afford the extensive renovations, which include things such as specific ventilation systems and hallway widths.
The regulations require abortion clinics to have the same physical building standards as newly constructed hospitals, including specific hallway widths, ventilation systems and janitor's closets.
They include such requirements as unnecessary hallway widths in clinics, forced untrasounds, repeat visits and forcing physicians to lie to their patients.
Opponents of the requirement, which specified things like hallway widths and drinking fountains in waiting rooms, said it would be so cost-prohibitive that it could effectively shut down all 20 abortion providers in the state.
Opponents of the regulations, which include minimum hallway widths, specific ventilation systems and covered entrances, argue that they are medically unnecessary and meant for the construction of new hospitals -- not as regulations for existing outpatient abortion clinics.
When Republican Robert McDonnell, McAuliffe's predecessor, was governor, the state board of health passed regulations requiring clinics to meet the same physical building standards as ambulatory surgical centers, incorporating specific ventilation systems, parking lot designs, hallway widths and covered entrances.
I signed for the delivery, opened the package, and then read the book from cover to cover right there in the hallway, feet shoulder-width apart, in a readerly attitude of casual triumphalism.
But plenty of basic structural information can be missing: the height of the windows, the width of hallways, the placement of electrical outlets, the apartment's overall condition.
The Maryland regulations are not as rigid as those in some states: they do not dictate the width of hallways, the size of janitors' closets or the number of parking spaces outside.
"Think about it -– the width of hallways, paint colors, and janitors' closets have little to do with actual patient care," said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice VirgiNARAL Pro-Choice
