Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ABORTION CLINIC BILL APPROVED

The bill, which has assumed a higher priority in Congress since a Florida abortion doctor was killed this year, was approved by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, 13-4. It now goes to the full Senate.

A similar bill is awaiting action in the House. The Clinton administration backs the bill, and Attorney General Janet Reno has personally lobbied for it on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said the legislation is urgent because a new wave of "clinic assaults" is planned for this summer in Ohio, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and California.

The committee, voting largely on party lines, rejected GOP attempts to add language ensuring the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters.

Democrats argued that language was not needed, because Americans are guaranteed free speech under the Constitution. The bill outlaws violence or actions that interfere with a woman's right to obtain, or a doctor's right to deliver, an abortion, the Democrats said.

Carrying picket signs, handing out literature or praying in front of a clinic still would be legal, they said.

"This is not about free speech," Kennedy said. "This is about violence and intimidation and threats and force."

But Republicans said anti-abortion protesters have been the victims of interference, too, and need protection.

"You don't achieve peace by disarming only one of the combatants," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The bill gives Reno's department new power to obtain court orders halting violence, blockades or threats to women and doctors. It also establishes new federal crimes for such activity.

Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., who opposes abortion but ultimately voted for the bill, said he did not want the measure to turn into a "Republican against Democrat, liberal against conservative" measure.

But he said politics could not help but be involved in the volatile issue of abortion and that gave him concern about the way anti-abortion protesters might be treated.

"I don't trust a soul at the Department of Justice," Durenberger said. He urged Kennedy to find a way to accommodate Republican concerns over the free speech rights of protesters.

Kennedy already has added definitions of "physical obstruction," "intimidate," and "interfere" to make it easier for Republicans to swallow.

The latest version also includes a narrow exception for parents whose actions are aimed solely at their minor children. And the bill now covers facilities where counseling about abortion alternatives take place.