• Anti-choice activists have taken their fight to the states to make abortion procedures inaccessible with regulatory schemes.
• Between 2010 and 2016, states have enacted 338 abortion restrictions across the country, accounting for almost 30% of the 1,142 abortion restrictions enacted by states since Roe v. Wade. There are 29 states currently hostile to abortion rights. [Guttmacher Institue]
• TRAP laws are Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. State legislatures have been creating laws to impose significant burdens on health care clinics with the goal of forcing them to shut their doors.
• Clinics are told to unnecessarily convert their facilities to ambulatory surgical centers. Abortion doctors are required to get impossible admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Arbitrary building codes are enforced. {source: ProchoiceAmerica.org/media/fact_sheets/abor=on_access_trap.pdf}
• Pregnant women are subjected to state-mandated counseling, extensive waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds and forced to listen to physician scripts filled with misinformation.
• Nearly 20 states have outright banned abortion after 20 weeks. {Source: Guttmacher Institute, State Laws and Policies, Feb. 2017}
• The TRAP laws are positioned as “caring about the health of women” but in reality are a strategic tool used by anti-choice lawmakers to do the opposite. These laws limit women’s access to healthcare and safe abortions, putting them in danger.
THE TRUTH
• In the last 3 years, the number of abortion clinics in Texas has been reduced from 41 to 18 with several more clinics in jeopardy of closing. (2)
• 5 states in the country are down to one clinic. (5)
• The one abortion clinic left in South Dakota requires state-directed counseling plus a 72 hour waiting period. It takes an estimated $800+ and one week away from work and family to have an abortion. (1)
• Laws restricting abortion do not decrease abortion – it only decreases safe abortion. At least 100,000 women in Texas last year attempted to self-induce abortion as a result of obstructed access. (3) Google reported that Americans entered at least 700,000 searches for variations of the phrase “how to self-abort” in 2015. (4)
- http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/media/fact-sheets/abortion-access-trap.pdf
- https://utexas.app.box.com/v/wexselfinductionresearchbrief
- https://utexas.app.box.com/v/wexselfinductionresearchbrief
- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/opinion/sunday/the-return-of‐the‐diy‐abortion.html
- http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-abortion-clinics-are-in-america-each-state-2017-2