WASHINGTON – Battles over abortion are likely to be fierce next year when Congress resumes work with a strengthened anti-abortion majority in the House and the Senate.

Both sides are gearing up for fights over legislative initiatives as well as judicial nominations, with abortion-rights advocates worried that their reduced numbers in Congress will make it difficult to stave off the erosion of long-standing rights.

Just last week, Republicans tucked language into a spending bill to block government agencies from punishing health care providers who do not provide abortions or abortion counseling. The amendment says agencies cannot withhold federal dollars from such providers.

Federal law currently protects Catholic doctors from these penalties, but the new measure encompasses all doctors, hospitals and insurers.

Members of the House and Senate who favor abortion rights were unable to remove the amendment and unable to stop the spending bill from moving forward.

“The conservatives have been emboldened and the moderates have been minimized, and this is a real wake-up call,” Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., a strong abortion-rights advocate, said in an interview.

Anti-abortion activists say their increased strength on Capitol Hill will help them push their agenda, although the ever-present threat of a filibuster in the Senate will still complicate their efforts.

It takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to overcome a filibuster – a parliamentary maneuver to block a vote – and the Republicans have 55 senators, including some who support abortion rights.

“We’re going to see a lot of innovative ways to try to whittle away at Roe v. Wade,” predicted Karen O’Connor, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University. Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing women the right to an abortion.

Elizabeth Sherman, a research fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, said the religious right is demanding that President Bush and Congress come through for them after an election year in which they were said to provide the winning margin for the Republican Party.

“They expect Congress and the president to deliver on an agenda that’s very forceful and make legal changes to restrict abortion and hopefully roll back Roe v. Wade,” Sherman said.

Of the nine new members of the Senate, seven are considered opponents of abortion. And of the 38 new members of the House, at least 20 oppose abortion, according to anti-abortion advocates.

Still, anti-abortion activists are far from ebullient.

“It will still be difficult in the Senate,” cautioned Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, because of the filibuster rule. The National Right to Life’s agenda includes fighting for judicial nominees who oppose abortion, as well as efforts to limit research that anti-abortion activists believe requires the killing of human embryos.

Also on tap:

The Child Custody Protection Act, which would make it a federal crime to take a minor across state lines for an abortion without notifying the parents. The House has passed this bill three times, but the Senate has blocked it from becoming law.

The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, which was introduced last May. Doctors would be required to tell women seeking an abortion after 20 weeks “about the capacity of the unborn child to experience great pain during the abortion,” according to the National Right to Life Committee. The doctor would also be required to provide the woman with a consent form so she could “accept or refuse administration of a pain-relieving drug to the unborn child.”

Despite the increased numbers of lawmakers who oppose abortion, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said there is no guarantee of success. “It should be a little easier, but it’s never less than a struggle,” Hyde said in an interview.

Hyde, a longtime opponent of abortion, said he was surprised at the outcry last week over the measure protecting health care organizations from having to provide abortion services or information. But he said no one will be caught off-guard over judicial nominations next year.

“You can predict a furious battle over Supreme Court nominations, should the president nominate clearly pro-life candidates,” said Hyde.

Advocates on both sides are getting ready for just such a fight, now that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. At least two other Supreme Court justices may retire as well during Bush’s term, though it’s not clear which ones.

“Everyone is focused on Rehnquist right now,” said David Seldin, communications director for the NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We could see multiple vacancies this year and over the next few years. It is abundantly clear what the president intends to do with those vacancies, and that is to fill them with the most ardently far-right hard-liners he can get away with.”

Abortion rights groups are raising money for just such a fight in order to run advertisements and mobilize voters to contact their representatives and senators, Seldin said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

During the 108th Congress, which ends this year, anti-abortion forces successfully won passage of a ban on the so-called “partial birth” abortion procedure.

In addition, Bush signed into law the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” which establishes that when a criminal attacks or kills a pregnant woman, he can be charged with two crimes, covering both the woman and the fetus.

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(c) 2004, Chicago Tribune.

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AP-NY-11-25-04 1839EST