Earlier this month, the Virginia Board of Health voted 11 to 2 for new, irrational regulations on abortion clinics in the state, which many reproductive health and justice advocates correctly noted were intended not to make clinics safer for patients but to effectively erode access to abortion care in the state.

This weekend, the effects of such laws were felt loud and clear, as Hillcrest Clinic, the first South Hampton Roads medical facility ever to provide legal abortions, decided to close its doors for good after 40 years in business, noting that it would cost nearly $500,000 to meet the requirements set by the new law, including changing ventilation and temperature controls.

Since it opened in 1973 on 1600 E. ...