Abortion is legal, but burdened, in Pa. As a nurse and legislator, I’m trying to change that.
On the 51st anniversary of "Roe v. Wade," my colleagues in Harrisburg and I will announce a bill to lift the onerous restrictions on abortion providers that do nothing to improve health.
Restrictive abortion laws do not decrease abortion rates. They just make them less safe.
My mom saw this firsthand. Early in her Philadelphia nursing career, two of her emergency room patients needlessly died after illegal abortions. Her stories about these patients and others stayed with me, especially when I followed in her footsteps and began working as a nurse practitioner.
These patients wanted to exercise their right to do what was right for their bodies and their families. They died because, at the time, providers and facilities had no protected right to provide a safe abortion for patients in need.
Not long after those tragic deaths, on Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the right to abortion in the U.S. would be guaranteed. Even though that decision was overturned in 2022, for nearly 50 years, patients had access to safe, legal abortions.
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But even before Roe was overturned, opponents of safe abortion have tried to chip away at family rights. They created new restrictions on abortion care referred to as TRAPs, or targeted restrictions on abortion providers. I remember with disgust when Pennsylvania passed a TRAP law in 2011 that imposed crippling new mandates on abortion providers — requiring them to renovate their spaces in order to meet the same burdensome regulations imposed on ambulatory surgical centers. These changes include obtaining contracts with hospitals, installing hospital-grade elevators, significantly expanding the size of procedure rooms, installing new flooring, and other costly upgrades. These changes are irrelevant to patient health, given that abortion providers are already well-regulated by the government.
Fortunately, abortion is still legal in Pennsylvania, and I’ve referred women to have abortions when they’ve needed them. Unfortunately, providers remain limited by our commonwealth’s onerous TRAP laws.
Supporters of TRAP laws claim these mandates were done in the name of women’s health, but they did nothing more than force safe abortion providers to close their doors.
Indeed, health-care experts — including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association — have concluded that TRAPs do nothing to improve patient safety. Instead, TRAPs make it harder for people to access safe abortions, worsen health disparities among vulnerable populations, and limit the training of and access to health-care providers.
Restrictive abortion provisions like TRAPs do not lower abortion rates — they just make them less safe. And unsafe abortions remain one of the top five causes of maternal mortality worldwide. It’s also the only one that is preventable.
Now, as a state representative, with the Democratic Party controlling the agenda of the House of Representatives and a pro-choice governor, I believe we are ready to free our state from TRAPs.
I believe we are ready to free our state from TRAPs.
On Monday, on what would’ve been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I will join nearly a dozen colleagues in Harrisburg to announce a bill that will reverse the 2011 TRAP law that mandates excessive impositions for abortion facilities.
Our bill will also remove the requirement for abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges or have transfer agreements at hospitals. This mandate only blocks access to care, as patients needing medical care do not need agreements to be seen at hospitals.
Our legislation will also help make abortions safer by increasing access to safe abortion providers in Pennsylvania. Let’s rid our state of the harmful regulations that restrict people from accessing safe abortions.
Tarik Khan is a state representative for Pennsylvania’s 194th Legislative District, representing East Falls, Manayunk, Roxborough, Chestnut Hill, and Wissahickon. He works as a family nurse practitioner at a federally qualified center in Northwest Philadelphia.