The Idaho House voted Thursday to repeal the state's abortion ``trigger law,'' which sets criminal penalties of up to five years in prison both for physicians who perform and women who get abortions. In developments elsewhere, Cincinnati's archbishop asked abortion clinic operators to voluntarily refrain from Holy Communion, and Planned Parenthood said it would appeal a ruling upholding the federal government's right to bar family planning aid to foreign organizations that perform abortions. And in Alabama, a bill that would require pre-abortion counseling and an overnight wait prior to any abortion passed the House of Representatives 79-18 on Thursday. But the measure faces tough election-year opposition in the state Senate. With little debate, Idaho House members voted 54-28 to erase the so-called trigger law, which wouldn't take effect unless the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to outlaw abortion. The repeal measure was forwarded to the state Senate, where it was expected to pass. ``I don't think anyone in this House would like the women of Idaho to be subject to criminal penalties for having an abortion,'' said Rep. Gary Robbins, a Democrat who introduced the repeal measure. ``I think the women of Idaho are able to make their own choices, and if they do so I don't think they ought to be penalized.'' The law was adopted by the Legislature in 1973, shortly after the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision essentially legalizing abortion on demand through the first two trimesters of pregnancy. If it were to go into effect, the Idaho law would mandate prison terms of two to five years for physicians who perform abortions and one to five years for women undergoing them. The law couldn't take effect under provisions of Roe vs. Wade, hence the ``trigger'' desingation. If the high court were to overturn that landmark ruling, and allow states to once again ban abortion, the Idaho law would take effect on a proclamation by the governor. In the Idaho House debate Thursday, anti-abortion lawmakers argued that lifting the threat of criminal penalties ignores the rights of the unborn. ``Some of us are here to speak for those who can't speak for themselves. Do they not count for something?'' asked Rep. Elizabeth Allan-Hodge, a Republican. ``For those of us who believe it is murder to kill the unborn, we cannot possibly believe we should slap them on the hand and tell them it's wrong.'' In Cincinnati, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said Wednesday that Roman Catholics who operate abortion clinics or promote abortion rights shouldn't receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. The head of the Cincinnati Archdiocese stopped short of excommunicating or forbidding Holy Communion to pro-choice activists. ``Catholics who obstinately persist in these activities, while perhaps not formally excommunicated, should not consider themselves properly disposed to participate in receiving Holy Communion,'' Pilarczyk said. Pilarcayk's statement was released after a meeting with abortion opponents who complained that Barbara Rinto, a Catholic who is the new director of Planned Parenthood of Cncinnati, violates church law by operating a clinic that performs abortions. Ms. Rinto has said that her feelings on abortion are ``between me and my God,'' and that her beliefs about birth control and reproduction are private. In New York, Planned Parenthood announced Thursday it would appeal a ruling by a federal judge there that upheld a federal policy _ instituted under the Reagan administration and continued under President Bush _ barring family planning aid to private foreign organizations that perform abortions. The policy, adopted by the Agency for International Development 1984, requires that foreign private health agencies, in return for American grants, certify that they didn't perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. Planned Parenthood, which assists private foreign agencies, had charged that the policy was a violation of their First Amendment right to advocate abortion and interfered with the rights of privacy of people seeking family planning information.
