TRAP Laws - Ambulatory Surgical Center Requirements
We're currently migrating this dataset. To explore these data, visit our Legacy Site.
One way states regulate abortions is to impose legal requirements on health care facilities in which abortions are performed. These legal requirements, known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider (TRAP) laws, apply specifically to abortion providers and mandate additional requirements not applied to other similarly situated health care practices. TRAP laws may address various aspects of facilities’ physical environment and operations (e.g., staffing, required practices, hospital transfer arrangements). This website contains datasets for three different types of TRAP laws:
- Abortion Facility Licensing (AFL) Requirements: The AFL dataset is limited to laws requiring facilities in which abortions are performed to be regulated under a distinct abortion facility licensing provision and/or meet special requirements regulating abortion providers.
- Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Requirements: The ASC dataset is limited to laws requiring facilities in which abortions are performed to be licensed ASCs and meet regulations governing ASCs.
- Hospitalization Requirements (HR): The HR dataset is limited to laws requiring facilities in which abortions are performed to be licensed hospitals.
This dataset identifies variation in states that have ASC requirements in effect as from August 1, 2016 through November 1, 2021. This dataset complements Office-Based Surgery (OBS) Laws, which impose facility and/or operational requirements on non-hospital facilities that provide office-based surgery, procedures and/or anesthesia/sedation.
These datasets were created by a team from the Center for Public Health Law Research with subject matter experts, Bonnie Scott Jones, JD, and Sara Daniel, MPH, of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health Care (ANSIRH), who conceptualized and designed the study.
**Note: CPHLR is working collaboratively with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) on the NICHD-funded Legal Epidemiology of Abortion Policies (LEAP) Study to build longitudinal abortion policy data covering changes from 2005 through 2022. These data will be publicly released on LawAtlas.org upon completion of the project period anticipated in 2027. To learn more about the LEAP Study, please visit the study webpage.