Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP)

Indiana law subjects abortion providers to burdensome restrictions not applied to other medical professionals, including:

Restrictions on Where Abortions May Be Performed

Indiana places medically unnecessary restrictions on where abortions may be performed.

In 2005, Indiana enacted a law giving state officials the ability to create extensive new restrictions on abortion providers.  This allows the state department of health to enact additional TRAP laws without further legislative approval.  Ind. Code Ann. § 16-21-2-2.5 (Enacted 2005).

Among the most common TRAP regulations are those restricting the performance of abortions to hospitals or other specialized facilities, which require doctors to obtain medically unnecessary additional licenses, needlessly convert their practices to mini-hospitals at great expense, or perform abortions only in hospitals, an impossibility in many parts of the country.

Indiana requires that all second trimester abortions be performed in a hospital or an ambulatory outpatient surgical center.  Ind. Code Ann. §16-34-2-1(a)(2) (Enacted 1973; Recodified 1993; Last Amended 1997).

Restrictions on Who May Perform Abortions

Indiana prohibits certain qualified health care professionals from performing abortions.

Only a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state may perform an abortion.  Ind. Code Ann. § 16-18-2-202 (Enacted 1959; Recodified 1993; Last Amended 1993), Ind. Code Ann. § 16-18-2-282 (Enacted 1949; Recodified 1993; Last Amended 1993), Ind. Code Ann. § 16-34-2-1 (Enacted 1973; Recodified 1993; Last Amended 1997).

A court has upheld Indiana's pre-Roe abortion statutes as applied to non-physicians.  Rhim v. State, 348 N.E.2d 620 (Ind. 1976).