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Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced Friday that it will stop providing drugs to women for abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy - a method used in about a fourth of the provider's abortions - because it says a new state law that criminalizes a physician's failure to follow a legislative-prescribed procedure is vague.

The new law, which went into effect Friday, requires the physician to inform the woman that she must return to the abortion facility for a follow-up visit 12 to 18 days after she takes the medication at home. The physician prescribing the drug also must perform an examination before giving the drug and must be physically present in the room when the woman receives the drug.

The law aims to ensure doctors aren't using Web cameras to consult with women about abortion-inducing drugs, as they do in some states to make abortions more easily available in rural areas. Supporters say the law sets a minimum standard of care for abortion providers.

Doctors who fail to tell women they must return to the clinic for a checkup face a maximum $10,000 fine; physicians who don't give an examination in person and who aren't in the room when the drug is given could face up to 3½ years in prison.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin still will provide surgical abortions. And the new law does not affect emergency contraception medication that women take within five days of intercourse to prevent, rather than terminate pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood provided just over 4,000 abortions statewide last year, including 1,100 medication-induced abortions, according to a spokeswoman.

Wisconsin Right to Life, which pushed for the new law, applauded Planned Parenthood's decision to stop providing drugs for abortions.

But the announcement set off a political firestorm among Democrats seeking to unseat Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the upcoming recall election.

Planned Parenthood officials called the law vague and problematic during a news conference Friday, saying it poses "an intrusion on the doctor-patient relationship," creates a burden for both patients and physicians; and places ideological politics ahead of established standards of care.

Planned Parenthood currently does not specify who a patient follows up with after taking the abortion drug. It recommends a follow-up, but it could be with a family physician located hours from the clinic where she traveled to receive the medication. When she signs an informed consent, the patient agrees to see a physician within two to three weeks of receiving the medication, a protocol that follows established standards of medical care, according to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood on Monday began alerting women who called clinics with questions about drug-induced abortions that they may want to act before Friday because the option might be suspended, said Deb Bonilla, vice president of patient services for Planned Parenthood Wisconsin.

"We're hopeful we could look at reinstituting medication abortions" once legal questions can be clarified, she said.

For now, "it's too ambiguous to put our doctors at risk," said Nicole Safar, public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), author of the original bill, said Planned Parenthood "grossly misstated" the impact of the new law and called the organization's decision to suspend abortion drugs "a thinly veiled attempt to manufacture evidence of a fabricated war on women."

The Legislature "enacted minimum safety standards" after hearing "hours of testimony from women explaining their experience with abortion trauma," Lazich said. "Planned Parenthood is free to continue or discontinue providing chemical abortions. Ultimately, its decision today has nothing to do with the law."

A woman previously was required to give voluntary and informed written consent to an abortion.

Now, a physician is required to speak to a woman in person, without anyone else present, to determine whether her consent is, in fact, voluntary. If the physician has reason to suspect that the woman is being coerced, the physician is required to inform the woman of services for victims or individuals at risk of domestic abuse and provide her with private access to a telephone.

Planned Parenthood officials said their current policy already calls for privately asking the woman if her consent is voluntary.

The Wisconsin Medical Society lobbied Walker to veto the Republican-sponsored bill before he signed it into law two weeks ago.

"The Legislature should not insert itself into medical care decision-making," Wisconsin Medical Society President George Lange wrote in a March 20 letter to Walker. "People mistakenly believe that women who have chemical abortions pop a pill and, magically, they are no longer pregnant. Yet, FDA protocol for use of this two-drug regime is three to four visits to a doctor with close supervision," said Barbara Lyons, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life.

Before the law took effect, Planned Parenthood required two visits to the clinic and recommended follow-up with a physician of choice. The first clinic visit involves establishing pregnancy and counseling. A woman receives the medication to take home at the second clinic visit, which must be at least 24 hours later. The clinic attempts to reach the patient by phone two to three weeks after dispensing the medication to ask if she has followed up with a physician. If the clinic can't make phone contact, it sends two separate letters to the patient, Bonilla said.

The abortion drug taken over the course of several days was approved by the FDA in 2000. It terminates pregnancy by blocking progesterone receptors in the uterus, leading to a breakdown of the uterine lining. Progesterone is necessary to maintain a pregnancy.

Right to Life and others have raised questions about the drug's safety. The FDA has acknowledged a handful of deaths associated with the drug, as well as hundreds of hospitalizations and infections.

Democrats seeking to unseat Walker in the upcoming recall election pounced on Friday's announcement.

Tom Barrett condemned Walker and Republican lawmakers for requiring physicians to "follow medical practices set out by politicians."

Democratic opponent Kathleen Falk, a former Planned Parenthood Board member, accused Walker of waging a "war on women."

Barrett said the new law interferes with the patient-physician relationship and "is designed to throw up road blocks to reproductive choice."

Barrett and Falk both called it one of several Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. The state also stopped funding to Planned Parenthood to provide breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Walker's recall election campaign staff fired back a statement of its own:

"The fact is, under Gov. Walker, Wisconsin is helping more women screen for breast and cervical cancer than ever before through the Wisconsin Well Woman Program," the statement said. "Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants to take Wisconsin backward and is distorting the facts to score cheap political points."