University of Wisconsin Hospital, its doctor group and Meriter Hospital are proposing to open an abortion clinic at their jointly owned Madison Surgery Center near Meriter, which anti-abortion groups say could violate state laws.

The clinic, which could open next month, at 1 S. Park St., would primarily offer second-trimester abortions, said UW Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brunette.

Madison's only existing abortion clinic, at a Planned Parenthood facility on the East Side, will continue to provide first-trimester abortions and some early second-trimester abortions, said Chris Taylor, public policy director for Planned Parenthood.

Dr. Dennis Christensen, who had been doing up to later second-trimester abortions at the Planned Parenthood site, retired late last year, Taylor said.

"Right now there is no clinic in the area that provides (later second-trimester abortions)," said Brunette of UW Hospital. "Our physicians believe there is a public health responsibility to provide them."

The plan was not made public until Tuesday, when anti-abortion groups issued news releases and one group released a letter it had sent to the leaders of UW Hospital, Meriter and the UW Medical Foundation, the university's doctor group.

The letter said the clinic could illegally force unwilling employees to participate in abortions, violate laws against the use of government money for abortions and support objectionable research on aborted tissue.

"We are aware that many of the employees of Madison Surgery Center strongly object to this proposed practice, but officials from (UW Hospital) are using strong-arm tactics" to set up the clinic, said the letter by the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian group.

"These are going to be done by UW doctors who receive UW paychecks," the groups' attorney, Matthew Bowman, said in an interview.

Brunette said "anyone who has moral objections can opt out of taking part." That includes residents, or doctors-in-training, who can decide whether do part of their training at the clinic, she said.

State-paid doctors would provide the service, Brunette said, but the money for the abortions would come from insurance plans or patient fees. State law generally bans government funds "for the performance of an abortion." But Medicaid, the state-federal health plan for the poor, covers abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the woman's life.

Tissue from the abortions could be used by UW-Madison researchers but only after review by a faculty committee, Brunette said.

Pro-Life Wisconsin vowed in a news release to keep "a constant pro-life presence outside their building as long as the killing continues."

Brunette said UW Hospital hasn't provided abortions for about 15 years. Doctors decided to do them again after Christensen retired, she said.

The board of the surgery center, which offers a variety of outpatient surgeries, will consider approving the plan in February, Brunette said.

The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is considered credible by both sides of the abortion debate, said 89 percent of abortions around the country are done during the first trimester.