LANSING – In 2004, 15-year-old Tamiia Russell of Detroit died of complications of an abortion, a complication that was not reported as it should have under Michigan law because her relatives were unaware of her abortion, a west Michigan lawmaker said.

An autopsy concluded that her death resulted from post-surgery complications.

Now, anti-abortion legislators have introduced a bill they say would ensure more accurate reporting of complications from abortions – a measure pro-choice groups say is unnecessary.

Rep. Kevin Green, R-Wyoming, drafted the proposal with the help of Michigan Right to Life, an anti-abortion group.

“Tamiia’s fatality was not reflected in the abortion data report for that year. Her loss was not even granted the dignity of a statistic,” Green said.

Green said there is a problem of non-compliance with a Michigan law that requires doctors to report complications that occur during or after abortion procedures.

But, Sarah Scranton, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, said, “If the legislators were serious they would provide the funding and tools to make programs and materials available to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place.”

Scranton said, to her knowledge, there is no problem of unreported abortion complications.

“We have faith in our doctors to do the right thing. The truth is that abortions are one of the safest medical procedures.”

The new bill would allow any person with knowledge of an abortion complication to submit the same report to the Department of Community Health (DCH) that doctors are supposed to.

To prevent people from abusing the proposed legislation, a false report would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the DCH, 25,209 abortions were performed in Michigan in 2005, of which 14 had reported complications.

“If these reports were accurate, abortion would be among the safest medical procedures performed each day. This simply cannot be true,” Green said.

Tim Murphy, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Grand Rapids, said, “ I don’t believe abortions should be legal, but at the same time I don’t want to see a patient suffer consequences that could have been avoided by a better quality review process.”

Murphy said the current law needs revision because of the lack of effective implementation. “It doesn’t mean they will find anything wrong, it will just make sure the system is working properly.”

Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Portage, said he knows that doctors are trying to cover up abortion complications. He accused Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo of handing out fliers that directed abortion patients to report any complications to Planned Parenthood and avoid telling doctors.

Planned Parenthood’s Scranton said, “I’m in the process of trying to track down one of the fliers to see if that accusation is accurate. We take abortions very seriously, we are on-call 24 hours a day in case of any complications and we have contracts with many local hospitals if a patient needs medical care. Our patients’ health and safety is our top priority.”

The bill is co-sponsored by 30 representatives including Judy Emmons, R-Sheridan and Rick Shaffer, R-Three Rivers.