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Anti-abortion pregnancy centers no longer are singled out under a bill being considered by the Montgomery County Council that requires pregnancy centers to warn women if they are not being advised by medical professionals.

A council committee voted Monday to adopt an amended version of the bill. The original version would have subjected anti-abortion centers to more regulations than those that perform abortions.

However, the head of at least one Montgomery County pregnancy center says her facility and others shouldn't be regulated at all.

Jacqueline Stippich, director of the Shady Grove Pregnancy Center, said she was pleased to hear during Monday's committee meeting that county officials never have received a complaint from women seeking assistance from her center — which does not provide or recommend abortions — or other anti-abortion centers.

That is evidence that the bill is unnecessary and that women do not need to be warned about centers like hers, she said.

Montgomery County has four anti-abortion pregnancy centers that originally were targeted by the bill, including the Rockville Pregnancy Center, which is a licensed medical clinic. The Rockville center would be excluded from both versions of the bill.

Under the original bill, sponsored by Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda, pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions or refer clients for abortions would have to tell women that they are not providing medical advice. The centers would be required to give the warning in writing and verbally.

On Monday, the council committee amended the bill to require all pregnancy centers — not just those that do not provide or refer for abortions — to offer a disclaimer if they do not have a licensed medical professional on site. The bill also was amended to require only that a disclaimer be posted in writing.

If a center violates the new restrictions, employees would be given time to correct the problem and would not incur a fine for each day it is not in compliance. Originally, pregnancy center employees would have been fined $500 each time they failed to offer a disclaimer.

Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee that took up Trachtenberg's bill, offered the amendments to ensure that the legislation was fair and to address legal questions raised during debate on the bill, he said.

Critics said the original bill restricted free speech.

Still, Leventhal said anti-abortion centers object to the amended version and would prefer not to be regulated at all.

"They resent it," he said.

NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, which supported Trachtenberg's original bill, supports the amended version, said Executive Director Jennifer Blasdell.

Stippich said regulations only would be necessary if there was a problem — and by the county's own admission there is none.

"I still think the regulation is based on a faulty premise," she said.

The amended bill will go to the County Council for a vote.