Legislation Would Shield Clinics From Blockades : Government: House proposal makes obstruction of abortion facilities a federal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment. President Clinton is expected to sign a compromise measure.

Although South Bay abortion-rights advocates are hailing Congress’ approval of measures intended to protect clinics from blockades, abortion foes fear that their civil rights will be dangerously curtailed.

Legislation passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday would make it a federal crime to obstruct access to an abortion clinic. The first offense could draw penalties of up to $100,000 and a year’s imprisonment; repeat offenders could be imprisoned for up to three years. A similar bill passed the Senate on Tuesday and a compromise measure is being readied for President Clinton’s consideration. He is expected to sign it.

J.T. Finn, director of the South Bay Pro-Life Coalition, harshly criticized the measures and the lawmakers who voted for them.

“I want to know, when are they going to stand up and protect the unborn children and their moms who are being butchered and exploited by abortionists?” Finn said on Friday.

He maintained that Congress is restricting protests by anti-abortion forces but not those by what he called “politically correct” groups such as gay-rights organizations, anti-nuclear groups and janitors protesting working conditions.

Abortion foes, he said, are unfairly singled out: “They’ve taken a few incidents across the country and painted a broad brush that characterizes a very peaceful movement as violent.”

He and others who oppose abortion said they will continue their efforts.

The protective guidelines are winning praise at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, which last month opened a clinic in Lawndale that has drawn anti-abortion pickets, even though no abortions are performed at the facility.

Said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Josie Corning: “We have worked hard on this bill and are elated that our patients, doctors and all our staff members will be offered better protection.”

And Debra Berman, co-coordinator of the Palos Verdes/South Bay chapter of the National Organization for Women, rejected the contention that the civil rights of abortion foes are being abridged.

“What they are doing is harassing people, and that is not a civil right,” Berman said.

The House bill would impose substantial fines and prison sentences for acts of violence against clinic staff members and patients.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey), who represents much of the South Bay, spoke in favor of the House bill, saying that “women and their doctors are facing battle lines at family planning clinics in this country every day.”

Harman met with doctors and safety officials in May to discuss plans by Operation Rescue to picket the Palos Verdes Peninsula homes of some physicians who include abortion as part of their practices.

In an interview after the Thursday vote, Harman said the legislation will not only protect abortion clinics, but also pregnancy counseling centers run by anti-abortion groups.

But at Operation Rescue of California, spokeswoman Sue Finn denounced the legislation as “blatant discrimination against pro-lifers.”

Sue Finn, who is J.T. Finn’s sister, said she is not sure how the legislation will affect Operation Rescue activities, but she predicted that it could push some “fringe” elements in the anti-abortion movement toward more extreme actions.

“We gave tens of thousands of people an outlet to respond peacefully,” Sue Finn said.

Still, the new legislation will not quell Operation Rescue’s efforts to stop abortion, she added.

“Every time our opposition has tried to crush us, whether throwing us in jail, macing us . . . whatever they do to try to stop us, we come out with a better strategy than they beat us out of,” she said.