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Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) - |
Pennsylvania imposes a variety of burdensome requirements on abortion providers that are not imposed on other health care providers, including:
Any medical facility – including a private physician’s office – in which an abortion is performed must be “licensed or approved” by the state as an abortion facility. 28 Pa. Code § 29.43(a), .43(c) (Enacted 1983). Abortion facilities must meet additional administrative, professional qualification, patient testing, and physical plant requirements. 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 3214 (Enacted 1982; Last Amended 1989); 28 Pa. Code §§ 29.33, .38.
All providers must be located within 30 minutes of a hospital that has agreed in writing to “supply emergency services” to the clinic’s patients. 28 Pa. Code § 29.33(10) (Enacted 1974; Last Amended 1983. No exception is made for rural areas.
Mandatory Hospitalization
Among the most common TRAP regulations are those restricting the performance of abortions to hospitals or other specialized facilities, which require doctors to obtain medically unnecessary additional licenses, needlessly convert their practices to mini-hospitals at great expense, or perform abortions only in hospitals, an impossibility in many parts of the country.
Pennsylvania has a partially unconstitutional requirement that all abortions after the first trimester be performed in a hospital that maintains an “obstetrical service” in compliance with state regulations. 28 Pa. Code § 29.34 (Enacted 1974; Last Amended 1983).
This restriction is unconstitutional as to second trimester abortions under Akron v. Akron Ctr. for Reprod. Health, which held that a second trimester hospitalization requirement unconstitutionally burdens a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. 462 U.S. 416 (1983).
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