EVER SINCE ROE V. WADE LEGALIZED ABORTION in 1973, American abortion clinics have struggled to endure. Clinics have been victims of 41 bombings, 165 fires set by arsonists, 122 assaults, 631 anthrax threats and seven murders of doctors and staff since 1977. But believe it or not, abortion providers' problems don't end there. Since the mid-nineties, clinics have been fighting another foe: legislative masterminds who are designing hundreds of niggling state requirements in order to annoy abortion clinics out of business.

Pro-choice groups call these provisions TRAP laws (short for Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers). That's fitting, since these codes, governing everything from door width to lawn care, are aimed at abortion clinics-in fact, no other category of medical facility or provider is subject to such unwarranted restrictions, according to the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) in New York City. TRAP laws exist in 29 states, and last year, pro-life legislators introduced 31 new bills to further restrict clinics, according to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in Washington, D.C. "These laws are a dangerous new front in the ongoing campaign by anti-choice groups," says Kate Michelman, president of NARAL. "Their intent is to burden abortion providers with so many regulations that they're forced to close down-all to deny women abortions. It's despicable."

Some clinic staffers say that renovation costs alone might force them to shut their doors. Thanks to TRAP laws, Missouri requires that procedure-room ceilings be at least nine feet high. In North Carolina, procedure-room air vents must be near the ceiling. South Carolina mandates that lawns around clinics be kept free of grass that could harbor insects. Louisiana tried to require that drinking-fountain water jets "be of an approved angle and jet type" until a federal district court judge blocked this and other regulations.

TRAP laws are becoming "the way of curtailing abortion," says Pablo Rodriguez, M.D., medical director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island in Providence. "Anti-choice groups have basically stopped trying to ban abortion on a national level because they know they'll get nowhere. But by passing these laws at a state level, they can do their damage undetected by the public."

NATURALLY, TRAP LAWMAKERS INSIST that their goals are noble. "We want to protect patients and provide abortions in a safe environment," says state representative Jim Klauber of South Carolina. "These bills protect the public and keep the shady operators out," adds Louisiana state representative Tony Perkins.

Here's what's wrong with that logic: These laws have little to do with the actual safety of abortions. "A door width has never killed an abortion patient," says David Grimes, M.D., former chief of the abortion surveillance branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And abortion is considered a safe procedure-your risk of dying from one is lower than that from childbirth or a tonsillectomy, according to NARAL.

So why do TRAP laws exist? As Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, a pro-life organization in Columbia, candidly told Glamour, "The pro-life movement is hamstrung by Roe v. Wade. Our strategy is to pass every kind of legislation that will be upheld by the current Supreme Court until we have a Supreme Court that will reverse Roe v. Wade."

While there are no statistics on how many providers have stopped offering abortions due to TRAP laws, some facilities have shut down in part because of the threat of these restrictions. In 1999, William Lynn, M.D., closed his abortion practice in Beaufort, South Carolina, partly due to the prohibitive cost of adhering to the TRAP code. That same year, Mary E. Smith, M.D., of Denton Health Services for Women in Denton, Texas, testified in court that TRAP regulations would make it impossible for her to continue giving abortions at that location. (She had closed her office by the time the case was heard on appeal.) Dr. Smith claimed she was the only abortion provider in her state north of Dallas and had drawn women in need of her services from as far away as Oklahoma.

Women seeking reproductive choices, of course, are TRAP's ultimate victims. Some abortion providers have claimed that due to these laws, the cost of an abortion would rise anywhere from $25 to roughly $360 per patient, according to NARAL. If those costs-and their potential impact on the more than 1.3 million women who choose to end their pregnancies each year-trouble you, log on to the CRLP Web site (crlp.org) to learn if such laws exist in your state. At NARAL's site (naral.org) you can find out how to contact your local legislators to tell them you want to see these regulations abolished. Women's involvement is crucial, says Margie Kelly, communications director for the CRLP: "Unveil TRAP laws for what they are: another way to put abortion out of the reach of women."

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