DETROIT (AP) Michigan ranked last in the country in offering women access to reproductive health care, according to a study released yesterday.

There are 36 abortion clinics in only 11 of the state"s 83 counties, the Michigan Abortion and Reproduction Rights Action League reported. There were 70 clinics in 1992.

"What is important about Michigan is it enacted more restrictive legislation that any other state in 2000," said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which conducts the annual study. "It also had a serious decline in the number of providers able to serve women"s needs."

The group looked at the number of restrictions a state has for a woman attempting to have an abortion the amount of anti-choice legislation being passed and the number of clinics and providers available to woman for reproductive health care needs.

"Usually it is not good to be in last place, but under these circumstances, I"d say it"s very good," said Pamela Sherstad, spokeswoman for Right to Life of Michigan.

Abortions in the state have dropped to 26,207 in 1999 from 49,098 in 1987.

"I think it reflects that change to a more pro-life attitude in Michigan," Sherstad said.

Michigan"s Legislature may be contributing to the lack of services. The GOP-controlled Legislature has passed several bills designed to curb abortions in recent years, and most have been signed by anti-abortion Gov. John Engler.

Michigan has a parental consent law and a ban on Medicaid coverage for abortions. Last year, after a five-year court battle, the state began requiring a 24-hour waiting period for abortions.

A law passed last year requires the licensing and regulation doctors" offices where more than 50 percent of the services performed are abortions. The law also requires physicians to report any physical complications or death from abortions.

So far, a 1999 law banning the so-called partial-birth abortion procedure hasn"t gone into effect. It has been tied up in court ever since its passage. The law is similar to Nebraska"s partial-birth abortion law, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Another law pushed by anti-abortion activists was vetoed last month by Engler. That law would have made employers pay more if they wanted to offer abortion coverage as part of their employee health benefits.

Michigan"s northernmost clinic is in Saginaw, which draws women who drive for hours from the Upper Peninsula for its services, the report said.

Woman Care, which operates six doctor"s offices that perform abortions in southeast Michigan, has seen a declining number of women seeking abortions, administrator Carmen Franco said.

"The fact that I see fewer patients overall does not mean that I believe that there are fewer abortions being performed," she said.

Franco said she was not surprised by the state"s ranking because, she said, pro-life advocates have devoted a lot of time to abortion legislation.

"I think that the citizens of the state of Michigan need to pay a little bit more attention to what is happening to the state of women because there is more legislation on the way," she said.