In response to increasingly alarming media coverage of illegal and unsafe abortion, Planned Parenthood held its first such conference on abortion. The real intent of the TRAP laws is not to improve abortion safety, but to impose costly and complex rules on abortion clinics and providers to close. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 23 states had TRAP laws or policies in place as of early 2022. Since 1995, under Republican leadership in Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have repeatedly passed measures banning the procedure of intact dilation and extraction, commonly referred to as partial-birth abortion. These measures were passed twice by large majorities, but President Bill Clinton vetoed these laws in April 1996 and October 1997 because they did not contain health exemptions. Supporters of the bill in Congress argue that a health exemption would render the law unenforceable because Doe v. Bolton defined «health» in vague terms and justified any grounds for abortion. Congress failed in subsequent attempts to override vetoes.

In December 2021, the FDA partially lifted the REMS restriction by removing the longstanding rule that healthcare providers must personally dispense the abortion pill mifepristone to patients. However, the FDA retained mifepristone in the REMS program and maintained the requirement for health care providers to register with the drug`s manufacturer to obtain certification to prescribe mifepristone. This significantly limits the number of qualified providers. The Supreme Court ruled that two abortion restrictions in Texas were unconstitutional because they would shut down most abortion providers in the state and impose «excessive demand» on access to safe and legal abortion in Texas. Qualification requirements for performing abortions vary from state to state,[93] and are currently being changed in several states by legislators anticipating the possibility that Roe v. Wade may soon be overthrown. [94] Currently, New York,[95] Illinois,[96] and Maine[97] allow non-medical health professionals such as physician assistants, nurses, and certified nurse midwives working in their field of practice to perform abortion procedures; Their laws do not explicitly specify what types of abortions these non-doctors are allowed to perform. California, Oregon, Montana, Vermont and New Hampshire allow qualified non-medical medical professionals to perform first-trimester abortions and prescribe medication for medical abortions. Washington state, New Mexico, Alaska, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey allow qualified non-physicians to prescribe drugs only for medical abortions. [98] In all other states, only licensed doctors are allowed to perform abortions.

[99] In 2016, the FDA issued new guidance recommending that qualified non-medical health professionals be allowed to prescribe mifepristone in all states; However, these guidelines are not binding and states may establish their own guidelines for mifepristone. [100] Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, feminist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away. Despite the upcoming election, which he would soon lose, Donald Trump nominated anti-abortion fundamentalist advocate Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of Ginsburg. (a) For the stage before the end of the first trimester approximately, the decision to terminate the pregnancy and its execution should be left to the medical discretion of the pregnant woman`s attending physician. However, this is not how the anti-abortion movement likes to paint the history of abortion in the United States. Anti-abortion organizations like the National Right to Life spin a narrative in which legal abortion is a historical anomaly and an unnatural consequence of modern America`s loose moral standards. On the National Right to Life website, for example, a page titled «Chronology of Abortion History» describes «some renegade doctors and midwives» who performed abortions in early America only «until the 1850s.» In fact, trusted midwives and doctors have performed abortions since the beginning of American colonial life and throughout world history. Fox News also falsifies the American history of abortion on its website. On a page titled «Quick Facts: History of U.S.

Abortion Laws,» it is claimed that abortion was classified as a crime in the U.S. colonies if performed before the acceleration. The ACA allows states to completely ban abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered through an exchange.