She described passage of the bill as "a tragedy in the making" and said Congress, including Sen. Bob Dole who sponsored the Senate bill, must be held accountable for the deaths and injuries to women caused by prohibitions on medically necessary late-term abortions.

 "The indelible stamp of the Christian Coalition is clearly evident in this vote," Gandy said, "and we can expect more legislation indicative of this group's religious views being imposed on the majority. This is the first time politicians have intervened to replace sound medical judgment with selfish and ignorant political grandstanding, and it will not likely be the last time. We may soon have Congress and state legislatures determining that a wide range of medical services will become unavailable in this country."

 The Dole/Canady late-term abortion ban prescribes a fine and a prison term of up to two years for physicians who perform the procedure.

 "Republican extremists have lied and distorted information about the important health-preserving and medically necessary aspects of this rarely performed dilation and extraction procedure," Gandy said. "They have used shock tactics, inflammatory assertions and blatantly false information to get this legislation passed. It is no wonder that people have lost trust in so many elected leaders."

 The bill is one in a long series of legislation passed by the 104th Congress attacking reproductive rights. The list includes: a ban on abortions for overseas military women and women in federal prisons; the withholding of federal funding for family planning programs and human embryo research; the criminalization of speech about abortion on the Internet; a repeal of requirements that ob-gyn residencies provide abortion procedure training; the prohibition of abortion coverage in federal health insurance policies; and the reversal of a requirement that states must fund Medicaid abortions for victims of rape or incest.

 "If women want to continue to control their bodies and protect their lives and health, they must work to remove religious extremists from Congress and state legislatures, particuarly in this crucial election year," Gandy said.