-- Critics charged during a public hearing today that a bill to require physician involvement in all abortions and other safety regulations is a backdoor attempt to shut down abortion providers.

"It is not regulating health and patient safety, but it is an attempt to circumvent a woman's right to reproductive choice," Dalton Johnson, owner and administrator of the Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives, a Huntsville abortion provider, told members of the House Health Committee.

Fifteen attendees signed up to speak against the

-- some yielding their time to let other opponents speak longer -- versus five who spoke in favor of it.

By voice vote, the committee approved the legislation. Its sponsor, Rep. Mary Sue McClrukin, R-Indian Springs, said it could come up for a vote before the full House as early as Thursday.

McClurkin denied the bill would prevent abortions in the state.

"I wish, but it won't," she responded to questions from Rep. John Knight Jr., D-Montgomery.

If approved, the bill would mandate the personal presence of an Alabama-licensed physician with staff privileges at an acute care hospital within metropolitan area of the clinic, both during the procedure and until the patient is discharged.

It would also require clinics to provide patients the name and telephone number of a physician who will provide care in the event of post-procedure complications.

Currently, clinics are permitted to use out-of-state doctors and contract with local on-call doctors to provide follow-up care in the event of complications.

The bill would also require abortion providers to report the name of any abortion recipient less than 14 years of age to the Department of Human Resources.

If the recipient is less than 16, the clinic would be required to solicit the name of the father and report both to law enforcement and the county department of human resources if the father is two or more years older than the mother.

Other changes would declare abortion a surgical procedure that "involves the taking of a human life" and declare abortion clinics ambulatory health facilities, requiring them to meet the same building codes.

Supporters heralded the bill, which cites an "alarming level of regulatory non-compliance among abortion and reproductive health centers," as a means to improve women's health.

"A woman who chooses to have an abortion -- of course we'd prefer she didn't choose that -- but if she does, she deserves the same standard of care as anyone else," said Sue Turner, director of the pro-life group Alabama Physicians for Life.

But critics charged the bill sets impossible standards that have little to do with patient safety and that the bill stems from a template created by the pro-life group Americans United for Life.

"This bill targets regulatory standards of architectural structure, equipment and staffing that are totally unnecessary and cannot be met by the clinics," said Gloria Gray, director of the West Alabama Women's Health Center in Tuscaloosa. "How does requiring a six-foot hallway make it safer for a woman to have an abortion?"

Eric Johnson, chairman of the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, said he participated in the drafting and it was written "from scratch."

"It's not meant to close the clinics," he said. "What it's meant to do is say the doctor you go to is like the doctor you want your wife or your daughter or family member to go to."

Johnson said that provisions regarding architecture concern fire codes. The bill requires all clinics to submit architectural drawings and and sprinkler plans to the Department of Public Health within 180 days of the bill's enactment.

During discussion, Rep. Joe Hubbard, D-Montgomery, proposed an amendment that would allow clinics to contract with doctors who have state privileges at local acute-care hospitals.

That motion died without a second. Rep. Ed Henry, R-Decatur, said there is more paperwork, but out-of-state doctors can meet the requirements of the act.