Protection for Abortion Clinics Voted by Senate : Legislation: Bill empowers Justice Dept. to break up blockades, prosecute vandals. Similar measure in House.

WASHINGTON —  Responding to a wave of abortion-related violence, the Senate passed legislation Tuesday to make it a federal crime to use force or the threat of violence to bar access to family planning clinics.

Lawmakers voted 69 to 30 to approve a bill that empowers the federal government to break up blockades at abortion clinics and prosecute demonstrators who vandalize clinic property or use violence or the threat of violence to intimidate clinic staff members or patients.

“Attacks on clinics are not isolated incidents and health care providers are living in fear for their lives,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill’s chief sponsor. “We must act before more doctors are killed or more clinics are blockaded or burned to the ground. . . . No doctor should be forced to go to work in a bulletproof vest.”

A similar bill is pending in the House and is expected to be passed by at least a narrow margin before Congress recesses next week for the rest of the year.

While critics said that the legislation is too broad and would infringe on the free-speech rights of peaceful anti-abortion protesters, the bill drew broad bipartisan support as lawmakers condemned the slaying last March of a Florida doctor and other recent acts of violence related to abortion.

“What were once peaceful protests have escalated into acts of force and terror . . ,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “American women have seen their doctors’ offices transformed from safety zones into war zones.”

“I am pro-life,” declared Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), “but we cannot as a society allow acts of violence to promote any cause.”

But while both sides decried the violence, conservative critics said that the Kennedy bill would go too far in threatening anti-abortion activists with criminal penalties. They said that it is biased in favor of abortion rights advocates because it would not apply the same penalties to them.

“Violence and abuse at abortion clinics comes from both sides of the line . . . but this bill is one-sided,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who charged that it would amount to “a virtual license to harass pro-life people.”

Throughout a day of often emotional debate, opponents sought amendments that would gut the stiff penalties established in the bill--or expand them to apply to people who intentionally “injure, intimidate or interfere” with peaceful anti-abortion protests outside family service clinics.

By a vote of 56 to 40, the Senate did agree to soften the penalties for protesters who peacefully block access to abortion clinics. But it retained harsher punishments for protesters who intentionally resort to violence, with prison terms of up to 10 years if injury results and life imprisonment in the event of death.

The Senate also defeated, in a series of largely party-line votes, efforts to apply the penalties equally to abortion rights advocates involved in clashes with protesters outside abortion clinics.

Kennedy argued that these were really “killer” amendments aimed at gutting the purpose of the bill. He said that the bill would apply the same penalties to abortion rights demonstrators should they seek to block access to pregnancy counseling services that discourage abortion.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has asked Congress to pass the legislation, saying that it would give the Justice Department needed authority to seek court injunctions to stop blockades at abortion clinics.

More than 100 abortion clinics have been bombed or set on fire over the last decade and this year two doctors were shot by anti-abortion extremists. David Gunn, a Pensacola physician, was shot and killed outside his abortion clinic in March, while Dr. George Tiller was shot and wounded outside his Wichita clinic in August.

Responding to the violence, two abortion rights groups announced in a related development Tuesday that they were posting a reward of as much as $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for arson and other acts of violence against abortion clinics.

The two groups, Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, said that the reward had been posted by an anonymous donor and that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would investigate the attacks.