Congress Bans Anti-Abortion Harassment : Legislation: Senate’s 69-30 vote sends measure to Clinton. Advocates point to rise of ‘vigilante extremism’ at clinics, but foes see move to suppress peaceful protests.

Reacting to bombings, arson and even murder at abortion clinics over the last decade, Congress gave final approval Thursday to a bill banning blockades, violence and intimidation against clinics, their staffs and women who use them.

The Senate voted, 69 to 30, to send the measure to President Clinton, who is expected to sign it soon. It will take effect immediately after that.

“This legislation is a major victory for women and for women’s rights,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). “For the first time, Congress has passed a law to protect a woman’s constitutional right to choose.”

Operation Rescue, sponsor of many anti-abortion protests across the country, reacted with outrage. “Just as politicians 144 years ago made rescuing slaves a federal felony, politicians have made rescuing pre-born children and their mothers from abortionists a federal felony,” said the group’s executive director, Flip Benham.

Advocates of the bill contended that violence at anti-abortion protests has escalated in recent years. By their count, such activities were responsible for more than 1,000 violent acts between 1977 and early 1993, including 36 bombings, 81 cases of arson, 131 death threats, 84 assaults and the slaying of Dr. David Gunn in Florida in March, 1993.

“These are examples of vigilante extremism,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “This is not rhetoric,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “We cannot tolerate violence.” Both voted for the bill.

But opponents argued that violent acts can already be punished under state laws, and they denounced the bill as an unconstitutional effort to suppress peaceful anti-abortion demonstrations.

“What this bill does is aim the full force of the federal criminal system against a class of Americans who feel passionately about one of the key moral questions of our time,” said Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.).

Fifty-two Democrats and 17 Republicans voted for the measure, while three Democrats and 27 Republicans voted against it. The House approved the bill last week on a 241-174 roll call.

Late last year, both the Senate and the House approved bills to protect access to abortion clinics after the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could not issue injunctions against clinic blockades under an 1871 law originally aimed at activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

The high court is now considering a challenge to a state court order creating “buffer zones” around an abortion clinic and the homes of clinic staff members. Unlike the measure passed Thursday, however, the court order prohibits demonstrators from assembling near clinics even if they are not blocking entrances.

The high court’s decision in that case could provide guidance to federal courts that might later be asked to issue injunctions against unlawful activities around abortion clinics.

The bill passed Thursday would make it a federal crime to obstruct access to an abortion clinic or to damage such a facility. It also would be a federal offense to use force, the threat of force or physical obstruction to intimidate or interfere with anyone seeking an abortion or any reproductive health service.

Parents attempting to influence a minor child going to an abortion clinic would be exempted from provisions of the bill, however. The legislation also would exempt peaceful picketing or other demonstrations protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.

It would provide both civil and criminal penalties for violators. Nonviolent obstruction of a clinic entrance would be penalized by a maximum six months in prison and a fine of $10,000, with a maximum $25,000 fine and 18 months in prison for a second conviction.

Violent violators would face stiffer penalties, ranging up to $100,000 in fines and one year in prison for a first offense and fines up to $250,000 and three years in prison for a second conviction.

Maximum sentences would be increased to a 10-year prison sentence if the offense resulted in bodily injury and life imprisonment if death results.

In addition, the bill would allow providers of abortion services or those seeking to use them to file civil suits for injunctions to halt the activity or to seek compensatory and punitive damages. Federal and state governments also would be allowed to seek injunctions against violations and civil penalties up to $10,000 for the first offense and up to $15,000 for a second offense.