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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 17, 1995                   TAG: 9503170049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN THE NATION

MILWAUKEE - A judge struck down a federal law Thursday that protects access to abortion clinics, contradicting previous rulings and setting up a possible showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a ruling stemming from a September protest at a Milwaukee clinic, U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa said the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act was unconstitutional.

Seven other federal judges and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., have upheld the law, limiting the importance of Randa's order.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Schneider of Milwaukee said that because of the previous federal rulings, ``we will continue to aggressively enforce the law.'

Meanwhile, a federal magistrate has thrown out North Dakota's restrictions on public financing of abortion.

U.S. Magistrate Karen Klein ruled Wednesday that North Dakota law conflicts with Medicaid rules ordering payment for abortions for poor women in cases of rape or incest.

- Associated Press

Mississippi finally abolishes slavery

JACKSON, Miss. - After 130 years, Mississippi finally voted on Thursday to ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

Without debate, the state House unanimously approved a resolution that previously had won unanimous passage in the Senate.

Of the 36 states in the union when the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Mississippi was the holdout.

At the time, state lawmakers were angry they had not been reimbursed for the value of freed slaves.

- Associated Press