Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP)

Virginia imposes a variety of burdensome requirements on abortion providers that are not imposed on other health care providers, including:

Restrictions on Where Abortions May Be Performed

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

Virginia requires all second trimester abortions be performed in a licensed general hospital or outpatient hospital. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-73 (Enacted 1975), Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-123 (Enacted 1979; Last Amended 1989); 12 Va. Admin. Code § 5-410-10.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Virginia's second trimester hospitalization requirement, finding it to be reasonably related to the state's compelling interest in protecting maternal health. The Court distinguished Virginia's hospitalization requirement from those at issue in Akron v. Akron Ctr. for Reprod. Health, 462 U.S. 416 (1983), which held that a second trimester hospitalization requirement unconstitutionally burdens a woman's right to choose an abortion, because the Virginia requirements allow for an "outpatient surgical hospital" as an alternative. Simopoulos v. Virginia, 462 U.S. 506 (1983).

Restrictions on Who May Perform Abortions

Virginia prohibits certain qualified health care professionals from performing abortions.

Only a physician licensed by the state to practice medicine and surgery may perform an abortion.  Va. Code Ann. §§ 18.2-72, -73, -74 (Enacted 1975).