An empty parking lot outside Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic in Knoxville leaves many full of frustration:

"Well, obviously we're concerned any time women's access to health care is limited, and it definitely is when there are fewer reproductive health care providers in the city," said Tory Mills, the external affairs coordinator at Planned Parenthood of Middle & East Tennessee.

The abortion clinic shut down after 38 years, in part because of the "Life Defense Act", which went into effect in January.

"The law states that any physician performing abortions in Tennessee must have hospital admitting privileges in a local hospital, or in the county next to it," said Stacy Dunn, director of the Knoxville chapter of Tennessee Right to Life.

Dunn said the law is a step forward for pro-life advocates, because it protects women from potentially unsafe situations.

"It's really just basic common sense that abortion providers ought to have admitting privileges locally so that if life-threatening complications arise, then a woman can have a continuity of care from the physician who knows best or who is most aware of her particular circumstance, the procedure that was done and the circumstance surrounding that procedure," said Dunn.

But Planned Parenthood believes the law is limiting and unfair:

"It always raises a question when you have a law that only targets abortion providers. It doesn't target other out-patient providers: plastic surgeons, opthamologists, anyone that's not practicing in a hospital. It was targeted to abortion providers," said Mills.

The Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic said while working on legal remedies, it wasn't able to pay its bills because it couldn't treat patients.

Planned Parenthood said its abortion doctors have admitting priviliges and said women needing help can also go to the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health.