By Amy McCullough
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - A bill requiring doctors to follow federal guidelines when dispensing the abortion pill RU-486 will head to Gov. Bob Taft after receiving final approval Tuesday from the Legislature.

Taft, who opposes abortion, is expected to sign the bill, according to spokesman Orest Holubec.

The bill took over a year to pass both the House and Senate because of confusion between RU-486 and the morning-after pill. On Tuesday, House members voted 81-16 to agree with Senate changes to the measure.

All Cincinnati's representatives except Tyrone Yates, D-Cincinnati, voted in favor of the bill.

For RU-486 to be effective, women must take a series of pills in the early stages of pregnancy - mifepristone is the first pill and is followed a few days later by misoprostol - to induce a miscarriage.

Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, said having watched his own wife go through a miscarriage, he knows the emotional and physical pain that can follow.

"I can tell you these aren't great steps that the women have to go through," Brinkman said. "There will be some women who take one pill and just stop and say, 'I'm not going through this.'"

The bill will not stop women from receiving the pills, Brinkman said. It will only force the state to follow federal guidelines when prescribing RU-486. These guidelines require physicians to do a full exam before prescribing the pills and to closely monitor patients during the process.

Sue Momeyer, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Cincinnati Region, the first office in the area to carry the drugs, said the federal regulations undermine physicians' judgment.

She said the original federal dosage requirements are too high, adding that doctors and researchers have found that a third of the dosage is still safe and effective. But Brinkman's bill would force physicians to use the full dosage, which Momeyer says will cost patients three times more.

"I think we have legislators trying to practice medicine," Momeyer said.

Brinkman cited a case in Akron in which a physician's oversight led to the failure of a woman's reproductive system. If the doctor had performed an exam before administering the drugs, the incident could have been prevented, he said.

Only physicians who are able to perform a surgical abortion will be allowed to provide the medication.

Mark Lally, legislative counsel for the Ohio Right to Life Society, said he supports the bill because physicians who refuse to abide by the state guidelines will now face penalties.