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What is TRAP?

"TRAP" stands for Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. TRAP laws regulate the medical practices of doctors who provide abortions by imposing burdensome requirements that are different and more stringent than regulations applied to comparable medical practices. These excessive and unnecessary government regulations ultimately harm women s health and inhibit their reproductive choices. The real purpose of TRAP laws is to make it harder for women to exercise their constitutional right to choose abortion.

Cite: Center for Reproductive Rights,
Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers: Avoiding the 'TRAP'? :PDF link:

How did TRAP come about?

The new stealth strategy has its genesis in the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The ruling reaffirmed 1973's Roe v. Wade, signaling that overt bans on abortion were unlikely to pass constitutional muster. But it also declared for the first time that states have some authority to regulate abortion clinics, as long as they don't place an "undue burden" on women's access to abortions.

The Casey decision started abortion opponents rethinking their tactics. Since direct assaults on Roe wouldn't fly, "there had to be a shift in strategy by regulation on the outskirts of abortion," says Dorinda Bordlee, staff counsel for Americans United for Life.

Cite: Mother Jones, The Quiet War on Abortion

So what is the strategy behind TRAP?

As Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, a pro-life organization in Columbia, candidly told Glamour Magazine, "The pro-life movement is hamstrung by Roe v. Wade. Our strategy is to pass every kind of legislation that will be upheld by the current Supreme Court until we have a Supreme Court that will reverse Roe v. Wade."

Cite: Barry Yeoman, The New Abortion War

What Is Wrong With TRAP?

• TRAP laws are designed to thwart a woman's right to have an abortion by using seemingly innocuous or well meaning "under the radar" legal technicalities:
• TRAP laws discourage women from seeking abortions by making the process so complicated that it's hard for women to know when, and where, and under what circumstances they may get an abortion, and what to expect when they go for one. TRAP laws create an enormous opportunity for women and girls to be dissuaded from an abortion by misinformation and rumor.
• TRAP laws treat abortion differently than all other comparable medical procedures, subjecting abortion to a unique level of governmental micro-management and oversight. They segregate abortion providers and patients from the rest of medical practice, thereby relegating abortion services to a status below other health care.
• TRAP laws reduce the number of abortion providers by subjecting physicians who perform them to criminal and civil penalties they face in no other type of medical practice. TRAP laws expose physicians to harassment, and intrude significantly into their practice of medicine.
• TRAP laws raise the price of abortions, by imposing requirements that significantly raise the cost of providing them. This causes some women to delay or even forego desired abortions.
• TRAP laws impose medically unnecessary, and at times inappropriate, requirements on abortion provision, interfering with physicians' ability to exercise their medical judgment in the best interests of their patients.

Summarized from: Center for Reproductive Rights, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers: Avoiding the 'TRAP'? :PDF link:

What's the story on HR 748?

The Teen Endangerment Act, also called the "Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act" (CIANA) or the "Child Custody Protection Act" (CCPA), will harm young women who face unwanted pregnancies. The Teen Endangerment Act (H.R. 748, S. 8, 396 and 403) results in a confusing maze of requirements designed to isolate teens and leave some with no safe options. The Act does so by severely restricting most young women's ability to obtain an abortion outside their home states. It contains no exception for when an abortion is necessary to protect a teen's health. It requires a 24-hour waiting period and written notification even if a parent accompanies his or her daughter to an out-of-state abortion provider. It criminalizes grandmothers and other compassionate adults who are trying to keep teens safe. And it forces teens from troubled families into dangerous situations.

Cite: Center for Reproductive Rights,
The Teen Endangerment act, Harming Young Women Who Seek Abortions

Some young women cannot involve a parent in the very personal decision to terminate a pregnancy. Many of those young women seek guidance from another adult, such as a grandparent, aunt, or adult sibling. Fear of abuse, pressure to carry the pregnancy to term, threats of being thrown out of the house or other negative repercussions top the list of reasons that keep some minors from involving a parent in their decision. For battered teenagers and incest survivors in particular, laws that require that one or both parents consent to or be informed of a planned abortion increase the risks in an already dangerous situation.

Young women who travel out of their home state to obtain an abortion do so for a variety of reasons. Some wish to avoid the harms they may suffer if forced to involve a parent. Others go out of state due to difficulties in going to court in their home state to seek a waiver of the parental involvement requirement, lack of a nearby abortion provider in their home state, or the presence of supportive loved ones in the other state. Whatever their reason, CCPA will force those young women to travel alone out of state, rather than with a trusted relative or friend.

Cite Center for Reproductive Rights,
briefing paper, The Teen Endangerment Act (H.R. 748; S.8,396,403):
Harming Young Women Who Seek Abortions :PDF link:

How does HR 748 (the Teen Endangerment Act) harm young women?

• Most young women involve a parent in their pregnancy and abortion decision-making; some cannot. HR 748 forces these young women to rely on potentially abusive and dysfunctional parents.
• It forces some young women'