Issue #5 IT'S A TRAP

Abortion: Talk About It                                                   Keep abortion accessible. Speak up and speak out.

QUICK QUIZ

Which is the LEAST LIKELY procedure to land you in a hospital emergency room?

A. Tooth extraction  B. Plastic surgery  C. Abortion          

             The correct answer is C: Abortion

Why does an abortion clinic need to be near a hospital but your dentist doesn’t?

A.    Sorry, there’s no good answer for that.

Nothing fake about our facts. Check out References.

IT’S A TRAP 

Here’s what anti-choice activists don’t want people to know. Abortion is an extremely safe medical procedure. Less than one-half of 1% of abortion patients in the US experience a complication that requires hospitalization. So why do 11 states require abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a local hospital?  Why do some states insist upon unnecessarily large examining rooms and corridors? Why, for heaven’s sake, does South Carolina demand the clinics specify the size of the janitor’s closet?

These regulations, and many more, are part of licensing requirements known as Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (TRAP laws). They are put forward as necessary for women’s health, but they have nothing to do with health and everything to do with shutting down badly needed clinics.

Almost half the states (24) require abortion clinics to go beyond what is necessary to ensure a woman’s health. For example, 19 states apply TRAP laws to sites where just medication abortion pills are provided. And in 14 states, TRAP laws even apply to physicians who perform abortions in their private practices. These laws are onerous and unrelated to real health issues.  Unfortunately, they are having a frightening impact. Because of them, clinics across the country are being forced to close. 

Find out what the TRAP laws are in your state. It might surprise you that Michigan and Pennsylvania have some of the most burdensome standards. Talk to your friends and  policymakers. Let them know that this is a trap.

OWRS (Older Women Remember and Speak Out) is developing Abortion: Talk About It, a series of short emails with reliable information that you can use to start conversations and support others doing the same. (Previous issues at Archive.) Share these emails on social media. Forward to friends, family, and co-workers. Ask them to go to OWRSpeakout.org and sign up.

We can’t change something we don’t talk about!

From Older Women Remember & Speak Out

 OWRS Issue #5, Feb. 2020