New Arizona Abortion Rules Limit Access to Drug

Requires clinic visit

Arizona moved Monday to implement new abortion rules limiting the use of the most common abortion-inducing drug and requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospitals.

The rules require that the most common abortion-inducing drug be administered only at the FDA-approved dosage no later than seven weeks into a pregnancy, and that both doses be taken at the clinic. The usual dose is lower, decreasing the chance of complications and the cost, and used up to nine weeks. The second dose is usually taken a day later at the woman's home.

The rules also require that physicians who perform surgical abortions have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic and that doctors administering abortion-inducing drugs have admission rights. It also required abortion clinics to report complications that require ambulance transport of a patient.