WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to outlaw a specific type of abortion, using new language to respond to a Supreme Court ruling that a similar ban in Nebraska was unconstitutional.

        The bill would prohibit doctors from partially delivering a living fetus during an abortion. Doctors who perform the procedure would risk a fine and two years in prison if the bill becomes law.

Chabot

        House conservatives claimed that the 274 - 151 vote indicates wide support and urged the Senate to act on the legislation.

        President Clinton twice vetoed similar abortion bans, but President Bush has said he would sign it into law.

        “Partial-birth abortion, after all, is the termination of the life of a living baby just seconds before it takes its first breath outside the womb,” ” said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, the House sponsor of the bill.

        “This procedure is violent. It's gruesome.”

        In 2000, the Supreme Court decided that a Nebraska ban on the procedure that opponents call “partial-birth abortion” was unconstitutional because it did not include an exception to protect the health of the mother and was so broad that it could limit a woman's right to other abortions.

        The ruling basically undercut similar bans in 31 states, including Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The Ohio ban is still being contested before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

        The House bill approved Wednesday contains an exception when the life of the mother is in jeopardy, but concluded that this type of abortion is never necessary to protect the health of the mother.

        It would also allow the father, if married to the mother of a fetus lost in the procedure, or the maternal grandparents, if the woman is underage, to sue doctors for damages.

        Mr. Chabot said the bill's findings are based on congressional testimony, and he predicted that the courts would now agree that no health exception is medically necessary.

        Opponents of the bill called it a fraud designed to intimidate doctors and pander to anti-abortion activists.

        “This is totally unconstitutional and will not go anywhere,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has opposed bans on certain abortions, contending that doctors and their patients should have discretion over medical decisions.

        The American Medical Association, however, has recommended that intact dilatation and extraction —- called partial-birth abortion by opponents — not be used unless the alternatives would cause greater risk to a woman's health.

        Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which favors abortion rights, has characterized the bill as “nothing short of a political stunt to shift the focus from the fact that women, not the government, should make medical decisions.”

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