The ground was laid for an epic US Supreme Court battle over abortion yesterday after conservatives delivered their most significant blow in decades to a woman's right to choose.
Hours after Congress voted 282 to 139 to outlaw a method of abortion sometimes used in the late stages of pregnancy, pro-choice activists and the medical community were gearing up to challenge the ban in the courts.
"When the president signs it, we will immediately go to court to have it enjoined," said Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation.
Wednesday night's bill caps an eight-year struggle by the anti- abortion movement to ban this type of procedure, emotively called "partial birth abortion."
Doctors performing the procedure could face fines and up to two years in jail. Although the bill makes an exception when the woman's life is in danger, it makes no other allowances for her health.
The import of the legislative victory was driven home by an almost immediate message of congratulations from US President George W. Bush.
Bush, long known for his strong sympathies with the anti-abortion movement and other causes of the Christian right, said the law would "help build a culture of life in America." He also urged Congress to forward him the final bill as fast as possible, so that he could sign it into law.
The US Senate approved a nearly identical bill in March.
The president's support appears crucial to the bill's fate. Earlier attempts to outlaw late terminations have foundered after being ruled unconstitutional. Three years ago, the Supreme Court threw out a similar bill in Nebraska, which also made no exception when a woman's health was at risk.
The bill's opponents say it interferes unduly in medical matters that should be restricted to a patient and her doctor. However, they have had to struggle to defend the procedure which, though relatively rare, is gruesome.
Few abortions are actually performed with the controversial method -- just 0.17 percent of the 1.3 million terminations performed in 2000, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which studies issues of reproductive health.
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