Va. To Be First State To Regulate First-Term Abortion Clinics

The Senate bill initially required the Board of Health to hospitals and nursing homes to higher standards, but a House amendment reclassified facilities that performed five or more abortions as hospitals, under the same regulations.

Republican Sen. Jill Vogel argued that the clinics and abortions are a danger to women if left unregulated.

"We would find ourselves in an environment where we carve out for just a procedure available to women, a scenario where there is a lesser standard of care and a lesser degree of regulation than for virtually any other procedure," she says.

Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw says it's not about safety –- but as another antiabortion bill.

"I have not seen a single person in here who I know supports this bill come in and offer to put the same requirements on colonoscopy, cosmetic surgery, lasic surgery, cranial/facial surgery, which are every bit as invasive," he says.

Attaching the House amendment to the bill bypassed a Senate committee that had killed a similar measure and forced a Senate-floor vote. Gov. Bob McDonnell said he would sign it into law.