Louisiana Bills Seek Prison for Abortion : Law: Strict measures pass in House, are sent to state Senate. Governor has said he will consider signing one of them.

The Louisiana House of Representatives on Monday approved two measures that would mandate prison terms for people who perform abortions.

One measure that would allow abortions in the case of rape or incest passed 71 to 32; the other proposal, which would permit abortions only to save the life of the mother, passed 68 to 33.

The more restrictive bill, introduced by Rep. Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, would make anyone who performs an abortion subject to a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $100,000, but would allow for “medical treatment administered with the specific intent to eliminate a pathological, physical condition which itself threatens to cause the death of the mother during pregnancy, even though such treatment unavoidably results in the destruction of human life.”

Jenkins’ bill, which has won the support of a wide coalition of conservative political and religious groups, is similar to another measure he proposed last summer. That bill was vetoed by Gov. Buddy Roemer, who said the measure was too strict and was “probably unconstitutional.”

Roemer, who recently changed his party registration from Democrat to Republican, has expressed similar reservations about Jenkins’ new bill. However, Roemer said he would be willing to consider signing the second anti-abortion bill, sponsored by Rep. Sam Theriot, a Democrat from Abbeville.

The Theriot bill is viewed by many here as a compromise, although Bob Winn, national director of Louisiana’s Right to Life group, said Theriot’s bill would eliminate “99% of the abortions in Louisiana.”

“What will this bill do?” asked Theriot in House debate before the vote. “It would negate the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973. It will restore protection for human life in both Louisiana and America. It would destroy the abortion industry. It would effectively close all abortion clinics.”

Under the Theiort proposal, abortions would be allowed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy to save the life of the mother, or if the woman could show that she was a rape or incest victim.

Without those three exceptions, the penalty for performing an abortion would be a fine of up to $100,000 and a prison sentence of up to 10 years at hard labor.

Both bills were sent to the Senate, where a vote could come as early as next week.

Should one of the bills become law, it is likely to become the subject of litigation and could become a vehicle for testing the Roe vs. Wade decision before the Supreme Court. That ruling legalized abortion in the United States.

Last week, Roemer said he “liked the direction” of Theriot’s bill, and said he would sign it if it allows for rape and incest exemptions. “If it does, that’s acceptable to me, as I said a year ago.”

Legislative observers here believe if Roemer does veto the more strict Jenkins bill, lawmakers might be hard pressed to come up with the votes for an override. But those same observers think the Theriot measure, which has won the backing of the state’s Catholic bishop and specifically states that a woman who has had an illegal abortion would not be penalized, may already have enough support in both houses to override a veto.

Abortion rights advocates were less in evidence here this year than last summer. Terry Bartlett, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Louisiana, said the vote on the two bills “sends a message that we don’t care about women’s lives or their health, that we want to send our family doctors to jail . . . “

Ed Renwick, director of the Institute of Politics at Loyola University in New Orleans, said the lack of a visible abortion rights presence in Baton Rouge is part of a greater strategy: “One of their positions is to simply not do anything this year. They want to wait for a Supreme Court decision and then after that decision is handed down to see how it affects the situation in Louisiana. I think that they also were not much out in force this time around because they thought they were going to lose anyway.”