Community Corner

Virginia Working Toward Limiting Legalized Abortion?

The City of Fairfax now requires clinics to acquire a special-use permit, which opponents claim is a backdoor way to limit legal abortions.

By Jessie Biele and Jennifer van der Kleut

A zoning amendment passed by the Fairfax City Council that changes the way medical-related businesses are classified has heated up discussion about medical clinics across Northern Virginia.

At least one hour of last Tuesday's Fairfax City Council meeting was taken up by members of the public advocating for or against the new rule, which passed in a 4-2 vote July 9.

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Under the new amendment, clinics are now lumped into the same category as hospitals and surgical centers, which forces them to gain approval from the City Council as well as obtain a $4,800 special-use permit to do business in Fairfax City.

Dentists' and physicians' offices remain classified as offices, and their process remains the same.

Find out what's happening in Annandalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The decision has appalled pro-choice supporters, who say women's health clinics that offer abortions are being unfairly targeted and call the amendment wildly vague, allowing room for pro-life city politicians to further their own agendas and arbitrarily vote such providers out of the city.

Mayor Scott Sliverthorne and the City's council members have strongly insisted the amendment had everything to do with clearly spelling out the city's zoning processes to make it smoother and more transparent for new businesses who want to set up shop in Fairfax City, and nothing to do with abortion.

Many readers have voiced their opposition to the amendment on the Fairfax City Patch Facebook page and in comments on the story.

Reader Sioux Lasley writes, “This is hardly transparent and certainly appears prejudicial. How, for example, does a dentist, who uses general anesthesia to perform extractions differ from a women's health center? Why should one be by right and the other require a SUP?”

Reader Lizzy O agreed, “It's so interesting how oral surgery and plastic surgery centers are not targeted. It's clear that with their exclusion, women's health centers that check for cancer must be far more dangerous than injecting a paralyzing agent into one's face or removing teeth with force.”

What do you think of the Fairfax City Council’s passage of this zoning amendment? Should medical-related businesses require a special use permit before opening? Tell us in the comments below. 


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