A Research On Trap Laws

Since the Texas abortion laws were so unclear many doctors and hospitals turned away most abortion cases to avoid significant penalties such as, a felony sanction of up to five years in jail and/or revocation of their medical license.

- In New York Times of February 27, 2016, similar to ones around country, the 2013Texas’ law was written by anti-abortion activists with only one purpose of shutting down clinics since its two main requirements have nothing to do with protecting women’s health. First, admitting privileges are often hard for doctors to get for bureaucratic reasons. Second, ambulatory surgical center standards are prohibitively expensive to meet and medically unnecessary due to the fact that abortion is one of the safest of all medical procedures, with a complication rate less than one-tenth of 1%. (The Editorial Board,

“Texas’s new strict legislation is already forcing women to leave the state in order to receive medical services in neighboring states more sympathetic to their desires to obtain an abortion (Hagle).” This is causing many problems for expectant mothers, especially those who have preexisting genetic medical conditions. Many time a mother may have some type of illness that can be given to a fetus during pregnancy. Sometimes these issues are seen during a routine ultrasound and sometimes there are not noticed until the time of birth. This is causing woman who live in the state of Texas to have to cross state lines when they find out something is wrong with their baby and choose to terminate the pregnancy.

U.S. Supreme Court stands firm on the idea of restricting a woman 's right to an abortion to the individual state. Forty-three states ban abortions after a certain time period in a woman’s pregnancy. Nineteen of those states prohibits abortions at fetal viability, while three states ban the procedure in the third trimester and the last twenty-two prohibits after twenty weeks’ post-fertilization. Some of these bans have exceptions when the procedure preserves the health or life of the mother (Guttmacher Institute). The remaining states attract the most patients from across the nation and around

The topic of reproductive rights surrounding women in Texas has been a hot buttoned issue since the closing of many reproductive centers across the state. Recently damaging abortion restrictions were passed and therefor encroach on women’s reproductive rights even more by decreasing access to abortion care. Texas’ 84th Legislature, both passed HB 3994 as a law and had it Governor Abbott make it effective with his signature on July 8, or this year. This law complicates access to abortion services for mistreated and neglected minors and for those who do not possess specific identification cards in Texas.

The statues that made abortion a crime in Texas are articles 1191-1194 and 1196 of Texas's penal code. Under these codes the only way a woman can have an abortion is if her life is in danger and she will die if one is not performed. Texas has had anti abortion laws since 1854. The first ever written abortion statue was in England in 1803 it made abortion of a 'quick fetus' a capital crime punishable by death. Lesser punishments for an abortion done before quickening were enacted. 'Quickening' is defined as the fetus's first sign of movement in the womb. This act by Lord Ellenborough was the bases for abortion laws in the United States.

While the fight to legalize abortion, for reasons other than a mothers health concerns, was won, states such as Texas are now reconsidering the regulations, which go along with such right. In 2004 the State of Texas introduced the Woman’s Right to Know Act, which “requires that all abortions at or after 16 weeks’ gestation be performed in an ambulatory surgical center (ASC)” (Colman, S., & Joyce, T. (2010), p. 775). Roe V Wade’s Supreme Court decision makes it federal law that abortion be legal, therefore the state of Texas cannot make a law specifically prohibiting abortions around this time. However, they can implement acts such as the one discussed above to hinder a women’s access to such rights. By implementing the Woman’s Right to Know Act, the state of Texas is allowing abortion, however it makes access to it within the state of Texas out of reach for the majority of women. In the time following the effect of this law “not one of Texas’s 54 nonhospital abortion providers met the requirements of a surgical center” (Colman, S., & Joyce, T. (2010), p. 775. Following that, a

To help the court determine the decision for this case, they used several widely-known Supreme Court decisions to help build the framework for their ruling. The Supreme Court decisions included: Roe v. Wade (1973), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) and City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproduction (1983). In determining the ruling, the court felt that the regulations were without a rational basis. Initially, the court was in support of the provision. They argued that the admitting privileges requirement furthers health and safety in two respects by noting that the first provision serves as a “quality control mechanism” due to hospitals not wanting to grant admitting privileges to disreputable or incompetent physicians. (Clerk, 2014). The second argument was that admitting privileges ensures a continuity of care between the abortion clinic and the hospital.

Before 1973, abortion access was determined by state legislature for each individual state with no consistency across the United States. Some states allowed abortions but most state statues heavily restricted or completely banned abortion. The restricted states would generally only allow abortion in the event of rape, incest, fetal anomalies, or the woman’s life is at risk. The state of Texas enforced a state statute that made it illegal for an abortion to be performed unless the woman’s

The bill, additionally, mandated that any doctor in Texas who performs any form of activity which leads to abortion must have admitted privileges and prerogatives at any nearly health institution or hospital and must also meet all the required standards as any surgical health-care institution in Texas. The Bill also had

Should abortion laws in the state of Texas be more strict? Every state has different steps

In Texas, a large cultural controversy has resurfaced. State lawmakers want to introduce a new set of guidelines which would essentially limit the availability of abortions to Texan women. This debate is very clearly divided into two opposing sides: pro-life and pro-choice. The pro-life side wants to pass this law, which says that clinics must be held to hospital grade standards and doctors must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where the abortion takes place. According to the pro-choice side and abortion clinicians themselves, “the regulations [are] expensive, unnecessary and intended to put many [offices] out of business” (nytimes). This case has made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning that

Texas continues to fight women’s rights groups for the life of the “unborn child” and has won on many levels. According to the Texas Abortion Laws, Texas includes mandatory ultrasound imaging and parental consent for minors, and women must make at least four visits to a doctor and receive an ultrasound. Women may only receive a third trimester abortion if it is necessary to prevent death or substantial risk of serious impairment to a women’s physical or mental health, or if fetus has severe and irreversible abnormality. Texas considers an illegal abortion if it destroys the vitality or life of child in birth or before (which otherwise would have been born alive); operating a facility without a license, failure to meet Board of Health standards, or failure to make reports to Department of Health; act preformed after pregnancy with intent to cause termination of pregnancy other than for purpose of birth of live fetus or removal

A recent bill was passed in Texas by Gov. Rick Perry which was one of the country toughest restriction on abortion. According to the Texas House Bill, abortion will be banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy. A woman is a minor unless proof can be provided to verify her age. This is to be followed properly by all the health clinics and abortion clinics

“When medication abortion is not available at [University Health Services], students who are seeking an abortion face financial, time, and travel constraint burdens that create negative impacts on academic performance and mental health,” the resolution says. “Abortion is a common health-care service and access to abortion is necessary and relevant in student life.”