Bankruptcy Bill Is Arena for Abortion Fight.

A bankruptcy bill pending before the Senate is about to provide a forum for the first abortion battle of the new Congress . . . .

At issue is a proposed amendment intended to deny bankruptcy protection to protesters who use violence to shut down abortion clinics.

[This] measure grew out of a 1994 federal law that bans the use of force, threats or blockades to keep patients out of abortion clinics. The law allows clinics to sue protesters who block clinic doors, but some protesters have filed for bankruptcy to escape paying court-imposed fines. The amendment has previously passed the Senate, but in 2002, abortion opponents in the House doomed the entire bankruptcy bill rather than vote for it.

[I]n recent weeks, as Democrats have become immersed in an internal debate over whether to de-emphasize abortion as a political issue . . . Abortion rights advocates, meanwhile, are divided over a bill that would require doctors to offer women seeking an abortion pain medicine for the fetus.

Last week . . . Jim DeMint of South Carolina, introduced legislation that would withdraw the so-called abortion pill RU-486 from the market while federal regulators reviewed it.

(3-8-05 The New York Times.)