Clinton Signs Law Banning Abortion Clinic Blockades : Legislation: The statute allows for stiff penalties for violent protesters. But opponents file suit, claiming abridgment of First Amendment rights.

President Clinton signed legislation Thursday that bars abortion clinic blockades and harassment--a move that extended a recent string of victories for abortion-rights groups but brought a pair of immediate legal challenges from their foes.

As Clinton hailed the law as a blow against “extremism and vigilantism,” two anti-abortion groups filed lawsuits that could lead to court clarification of the hotly disputed boundary between free speech and abortion-rights laws. The groups--the American Center for Law and Justice and the American Life League--sought injunctions to block the new statute, which they said will curtail their right to protest more than it will the rights of any other group.

Even as they went to court, abortion foes acknowledged that the law, which becomes effective immediately, had dealt them a severe setback. While they vowed to continue protests, officials of some anti-abortion groups said they feared that the stiff sanctions--which include fines of up to $250,000 and prison terms of six months to life--could curtail their ability to find volunteers to help close down clinics.

Some openly lamented the reversals suffered by a movement that dominated the abortion debate for much of the past decade.

“Mr. Clinton eroded in one year pro-life gains that took us 20 years of back-breaking work,” said the Rev. Pat Mahoney, a national leader of Operation Rescue. “Clearly, this has been a horrible year for the pro-life movement.”

In addition to the clinic-access law, the anti-abortion rights groups recently have been disappointed by an agreement allowing U.S. testing of RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, and by million-dollar judgments against protesters who damaged abortion clinics.

The Supreme Court also ruled this year that federal prosecutors may use the tough anti-racketeering statute in some circumstances against protesters who sought to close down clinics. And last year the Administration lifted an order prohibiting abortion counseling in federally funded clinics.

Surrounded by abortion-rights advocates at a White House ceremony, Clinton said: “We cannot--we must not--continue to allow the attacks, the incidents of arson, the campaigns of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that have given rise to this law.”

But he insisted that the bill “is not a strike against the First Amendment. Far from it. It ensures that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise all their constitutional rights, including their privacy rights.”

Some advocates say more than 1,000 violent incidents have occurred at clinics since 1977, including 81 cases of arson, 36 bombings, 84 assaults, two kidnapings and the fatal shooting of Florida physician David Gunn. That killing helped galvanize sentiment against abortion clinic violence, changing the political balance in Congress sufficiently to deliver victory for a proposal that two years ago died in committee.

The bill Clinton signed passed 241 to 174 in the House and by 69 to 30 in the Senate.

“We decry violence all the time--this was a move to stop it,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who helped Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) lead the effort for the bill in the Senate.

The law imposes its penalties on anyone who uses force, threats or “physical obstruction” against any person using an abortion clinic or reproductive health service. But the bill also states that none of its provisions may interfere with free speech rights.

Abortion foes argue that since the law imposes much harsher penalties than the one-night jail terms and $100 fines typical for protest sit-ins and blockades, it is effectively depriving them of a tactic that other protesters have long used.

“Everybody in America can protest except when we try to save babies,” charged Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue founder who was arrested along with six others in front of the White House on Wednesday. “If Bill Clinton had signed a bill like this in the 1960s, there never would have been sit-ins at lunch counters in the South.”

Abortion rights advocates said they expect attempts to block clinics will continue until the courts reach a decisive judgment on the statute, or at least until a series of high-profile cases demonstrate to anti-abortion activists that the penalties will be strongly enforced. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who pushed the Administration to support a strong bill, is expected to oversee vigorous support of its provisions.

Controversial though it is, the clinic-access act only sets the stage for what may be an even more heated debate over whether abortion benefits should be included in the health benefits package that would be offered under the Clinton health reform plan. Several congressional committees are studying that explosive question.

Times staff writer James Risen contributed to this story.