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PHOENIX — A panel of the state Board of Nursing is recommending that nurse practitioners be allowed to perform first-trimester abortions in Arizona.

Without dissent, the board's Advance Practices Committee concluded that terminating a pregnancy during the first three months, using a procedure in which the fetus is vacuumed out of the womb, is within state laws and regulations about what a nurse practitioner can do.

That sets the stage for a vote Wednesday by the full nursing board.

The move, if approved, would give the board's formal approval to what Mary Andrews has been doing for Planned Parenthood of Arizona at its Tucson office for eight years. It was only after a complaint was filed last year against Andrews — the name of the person who made that complaint is not public — that the board decided to take a look.

The recommendation will only add fuel to efforts by some legislators to trump the Board of Nursing and statutorily bar anyone but doctors from performing abortions.

A bill to do just that already has been approved by the Arizona House on a 32-28 vote. HB 2269 now awaits action by the full Senate.

But even Senate approval would not end the matter. The last word would be up to Gov. Janet Napolitano, who already has vetoed two other abortion measures this session.

Central to the debate is the contention of Planned Parenthood that there is nothing wrong with having Andrews handle some abortions.

"There are a large number of women in Tucson who need to access services," said organization spokeswoman Michelle Steinberg. "That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a physician."

But Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, said that demand does not make it legal.

Herrod's organization lobbies to make all abortions again illegal in Arizona. But she said the current legislative proposal is about patient safety and not an effort to restrict access to legal abortions.

She said more than 40 other states specifically bar anyone but a doctor from performing an abortion.

At the nursing board's committee hearing earlier this week, Pam Lotke, a doctor and clinical professor at the University of Arizona, testified that what is being done during a first-trimester abortion is not from a technical standpoint a "surgical abortion" in which body tissues are being cut. Lotke said that term came into use solely to differentiate it from a "medication abortion," which became feasible after approval of the abortion-inducing drug RU-486.

She said the actual procedure used in first-term abortions, which essentially vacuums out the fetus, is considered extremely safe with few complications. She said there is no reason that cannot be done by a properly trained nurse practitioner.

Similar testimony came from others.

On the legal aspect, Lawrence Rosenfeld, an attorney representing Planned Parenthood, told the committee nothing in Arizona law prohibits nurse practitioners from practicing vacuum abortions.

Steinberg said that is why Planned Parenthood has been allowing Andrews to perform the procedure. "It wasn't as though we were going against a rule or a law," she said.

But Herrod said she sees the issue in the reverse — that nothing in state law specifically permits a nurse practitioner to perform abortions.

In a letter to the nursing board, she said existing laws that regulate abortions in Arizona specifically — and only — refer to the procedure being performed by doctors.

And she disagreed with the testimony of Lotke and others; Herrod said the procedure and its complications can carry "serious risk."

But Herrod is not counting on persuading the Board of Nursing to ignore the committee's recommendation and vote to ban abortions by nurse practitioners. That's why she is backing the legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Stump, R-Peoria, to spell out in state law, which overrides board rules, that only doctors can perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy.

That measure, however, has provoked some angry reaction from foes. Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, said scaling back who can terminate pregnancies will result in more women deciding either to try to do the procedure themselves or "resort to back alleys" to have totally untrained people do the abortions.

Steinberg said Planned Parenthood's Phoenix office only uses physicians, but not because of any concerns about nurse-midwives. Steinberg said there are enough doctors available to perform the procedure.

Vacuum abortions are not performed at the organization's other 18 offices around the state, though some do perform medical abortions.