In October, Colorado and North Dakota failed to pass ballot measures that would’ve given embryos the legal rights of a person. If an embryo was to gain the rights of personhood, this would end all abortions, some forms of in vitro fertilization and contraception. 

 This attempt was just one of the contributing factors that led pro-life activists to adopt a sneakier tactic to ending abortion, and a distracting factor at that. While many have been focusing on this attempt to end abortion, they’ve been unaware of other efforts at play. 

Those in favor of pro-life have realized that personhood measures are unlikely to succeed anytime soon when election season comes around, as well as in state and national government. 

Pro-lifers are now attempting to implement Target Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP laws.)

To put it simply, TRAP laws are essentially attempting to make it so hard for clinics and other facilities to offer abortions, that almost nowhere will provide the procedure, and the smaller number of locations will decrease the number of women opting for abortion as opposed to adoption or keeping the baby. 

TRAP laws, instead of fighting for the personhood of embryos, will push for facilities to meet the same building and construction requirements that ambulatory surgical centers are required to meet.  They will also require some facilities to acquire admittance privileges at local hospitals for their patients. This particular requirement is a bit of overkill seeing as abortions are almost always an outpatient procedure and rarely require any hospitalization. 

The aforementioned laws will make it nearly impossible for some clinics to keep providing abortions, or even to stay open. They will also have a huge effect on women without the resources to travel to the clinics that were able to remain open. 

Props to the pro-lifers that came up with this initiative, as well as to those who have been keeping it somewhat under wraps.  This is an extremely smart approach to take to reach their goals, and the lack of publicity has given these TRAP laws time to gain approval and acceptance. 

It is not only the right to get an abortion at risk. It is the right to use contraception and have in vitro fertilization as well. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice is somewhat beside the point because contraception and especially in vitro fertilization are great ways to prevent unwanted children before the need for abortion and give those who are having trouble getting pregnant families. 

At the end of the day, it is a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and have the appropriate resources readily available to her, but that isn’t the only thing at risk. It is imperative that we begin spreading awareness about TRAP laws before this sneaky, yet brilliant card played by pro-lifers takes these choices and resources away from women.