Summary Of The Film 'Trapped'

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“Trapped” by filmmaker Dawn Porter, is a documentary that follows the lives of medical professionals that work in the last remaining abortion clinics in the South. Since 2010, state legislatures have passed more than two-hundred and fifty laws restricting abortion clinics and their doctors (Porter). These laws are known as T.R.A.P. laws, or Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. These regulations are not applied to all doctors, or all OB/GYN’s, but are only targeted towards doctors that provide abortion services. The message that “Trapped” is trying to convey is that T.R.A.P. laws should be lifted because they are designed to ultimately close abortion clinics rather than regulate them, they increase unsafe at home abortions, and they are …show more content…

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In the long run T.R.A.P. laws are trying to close abortion clinics down, rather than regulate them. Among these laws is H.B. 2 in Texas. According to “Trapped” H.B. 2 has closed down numerous abortion clinics all over Texas by requiring licensed physicians to receive transfer agreements or active admitting privileges within thirty miles of the clinic- which can be close to impossible to obtain in politically hostile states. Outpatient clinics perform the majority of abortions in the United States. “Trapped” claims, “Less than 1% of outpatient abortion clinics experience a complication that requires hospitalization” (Porter). However, the law also requires every abortion, even the abortion pill, to be done in an ambulatory surgical center. H.B. 2 also requires a patient to come in for four different visits with the same …show more content…

Women are going to have abortions, it is just then they will not be safe or legal” (Porter). This is a shocking but true statement. The documentary brings up that there are home remedies that can be found online that when ingested will (possibly) induce a miscarriage, thus ending the pregnancy. According to New York economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Ph.D., in 2015 Americans entered at least seven-hundred thousand searches for variations of the phrase “how to self-abort” (Zerwick par. 13). The sudden rise of these searches started in 2011, when T.R.A.P. laws started getting passed, and was especially high in the South, where it is most difficult to get an abortion. It is estimated that over two-hundred thousand women in Texas alone have tried to end a pregnancy without medical assistance (Porter). This shows sufficient evidence that T.R.A.P. laws hurt women by limiting their access to safe medical

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