The U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban a procedure that abortion foes call "partial birth" abortion, moving the restriction a crucial step closer to U.S. President George W. Bush's signature.

With the 282-139 vote Wednesday, Congress was on the verge of ending a practice that Rep. Steve Chabot said was "truly a national tragedy."

Abortion rights groups said they would challenge it in court as soon as it becomes law, thrusting the issue of the ban's constitutionality toward a divided Supreme Court.

The ban would be one of the most significant restrictions on abortion since the 1973 Supreme Court decision known as Roe vs. Wade recognizing abortion rights.

The Bush administration strongly believes the bill "is both morally imperative and constitutionally permissible," the White House said in a statement.

The Senate passed a nearly identical bill in March, but differences with the House must still be ironed out before the legislation is sent to the president.

Abortion opponents have pushed the bill since Republicans captured the House in 1995, saying they want to stop a particularly abhorrent means of ending a pregnancy.

"Partial birth abortion is a gruesome and inhumane procedure and it is a grave attack against human dignity and justice. This practice must be banned," said Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen at the opening of the debate.

Under the bill, partial birth abortion is defined as a procedure in which the fetus is killed after the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, "any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother."

Physicians who knowingly perform the procedure would be subject to up to two years in prison.

"Passing an unconstitutional bill will not save one life," said Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards.

Opponents of the bill pointed out that the term "partial birth" is a political invention that appears in no medical textbook. It has been linked to the procedure known as dilation and extraction, although the court said the language could apply to other commonly used methods.

Abortion rights groups say the procedure may be necessary when the fetus is seriously malformed and cite one study that dilation and extraction comprised one-tenth of 1 percent of the 1.3 million abortions in 2000.

Abortion foes say that the figure is far higher and that the procedure is often used in the second trimester when the fetus and mother are healthy.

Some 30 states have passed bans on partial birth abortions although courts have blocked those laws in about 20 states, abortion rights groups said.

The federal legislation, if it becomes law, would apply to procedures in all states.

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