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The state will set up a Web site on abortion, under a bill signed this week by Gov. Frank Murkowski that tightens abortion law.
Gov. Murkowski signs bill to set up abortion Web site 073004 state 1 The Juneau Empire Online The state will set up a Web site on abortion, under a bill signed this week by Gov. Frank Murkowski that tightens abortion law.

Gov. Murkowski signs bill to set up abortion Web site

Women seeking an abortion need to certify that a doctor gave them info on procedure

The state will set up a Web site on abortion, under a bill signed this week by Gov. Frank Murkowski that tightens abortion law.

Women seeking an abortion will now need to certify in writing that their doctor either gave them the information from the Web site or some other set of abortion information. A medical professional also would have to tell the woman the gestational age of the fetus at the time the abortion would occur.

Two Republican former lawmakers and Planned Parenthood said Murkowski broke a campaign pledge by signing the bill. During his 2002 election campaign, the governor wrote to Republican women that he wouldn't seek to change state abortion policy.

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Murkowski spokesman Becky Hultberg said signing the bill doesn't amount to a broken pledge.

"Courts have ruled abortion is legal," she said. "We do not believe (the bill) changes that policy."

Senate Bill 30 establishes the new state Web site, which will include links to photographs of fetuses. It also would have information about abortion methods, risks and possible complications of abortion and childbirth, and potential physical and psychological effects of both choices.

Planned Parenthood issued a statement Wednesday declaring that the bill is meant to shame Alaska women exercising their right to an abortion. Murkowski "broke yet another campaign promise" in signing it, the group said.

Former Republican legislators Cynthia Toohey and Andrew Halcro, whose wife works for Planned Parenthood, also said the governor is going back on a pledge.

Toohey said that during the 2002 governor's race Murkowski sent an e-mail to pro-choice Republican women. Planned Parenthood produced a copy of the note that said: "I believe the state of Alaska has created a reasonable abortion policy and would not seek to change the current policy."

Toohey said the note convinced her to appear in a television commercial soon before the election in which she urged Alaskans to vote for Murkowski. She said Murkowski should have vetoed the bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River.

"I expected him to keep his word," Toohey told the Anchorage Daily News.

Hultberg said Murkowski has consistently opposed abortion in his political career. In his 2002 note to Republican women, the governor reiterated his personal opposition to abortion.

The bill that Murkowski signed doesn't "unduly impact" a woman's right to abortion, Hultberg said.


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