Abortion ban wins accord

WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate negotiators reached quick agreement Tuesday on what would be the first federal act in three decades to ban an abortion procedure.

Supporters of a ban on what they call "partial birth abortion" said it would end an inhumane practice and give momentum to their drive to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that declared women have the right to an abortion.

Opponents said the ban is unconstitutional and promised to challenge it in court as soon as President Bush signs it into law. Both the House and the Senate are expected to move swiftly to pass the compromise bill and send it to the president.

"We are just days away from prohibiting the gruesome and inhumane procedure known as partial-birth abortion," House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said at the House-Senate meeting. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., was approved on a straight party-line vote.

Bush has urged Congress to pass a partial birth bill, unlike President Clinton who twice vetoed different forms of the measure because they did not contain exceptions when the health of the mother was endangered.

The House and Senate, both by two-to-one margins, have passed nearly identical bills. The only difference was a Senate-passed amendment, offered by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, voicing support for the Roe v. Wade decision. The GOP-controlled House-Senate conference agreed to delete that language.

"We've been anxiously waiting for quite a few years for final passage with a president who actually will sign it," said Jim Backlin, legislative director for the Christian Coalition. "It will give momentum to the pro-life movement."

But Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, said the bill was "the culmination of a deceptive campaign that is endangering women's health and lives." She said that upon the bill being signed into law Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups will immediately file a lawsuit and seek an injunction against its implementation.

About 30 states have enacted versions of partial birth abortion bans, but in many cases they have been overturned in court.