Local pro-choice and pro-life activists expect Idaho's new abortion bill, if passed by the governor, to challenge Roe vs. Wade.

Last Thursday, the Idaho State Legislature passed the strictest abortion law since last summer's Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services Supreme Court decision.

If pro-life Gov. Cecil Andrus signs the bill, almost all abortions will be outlawed in that state starting July 1. Exceptions to the law will include non-statutory rape reported within seven days, reported incest if the victim is younger than 18, severe fetal deformity as determined by a physician and threats to the mother's life or physical health.

Pro-life advocates here hope the law will give Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor an opportunity to overturn the Roe decision, which made abortion legal in all states.

During last summer's Webster case, O'Connor did not refer to the Roe decision in her concurring opinion. O'Connor said the Missouri abortion law challenged in Webster did not directly challenge Roe, said Laura Grow, secretary of Penn State Pro-Choice.

"It will give the Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn Roe vs. Wade. It was designed with that purpose," said Frank Alinghaus, president of the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Federation for Life.

Arlinghaus said the Idaho bill is a direct challenge to Roe because it restricts abortions during the first two trimesters of a woman's pregnancy.

Spokeswoman for Centre Countians for Choice Judy Katz said the Idaho decision will give the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Roe.

Another spokeswoman for the group, Leann Simons, compared the intention of the bill to the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1989 introduced by state representative Stephen Freind.

"The Idaho legislature was more honest in writing their bill," Simons said. "Freind was pretending to care about women. Idaho just showed that they don't."

However, Grow said she foresees a challenge to the bill giving the Supreme Court, especially O'Connor an opportunity to uphold Roe.

The American Civil Liberties Union will challenge the law in court if it goes into affect, according to a Friday New York Times article.

Pro-life advocates said the bill is designed to prevent abortion from being used as a form of birth control.

"Roe vs. Wade is so extreme it legalized abortion on demand for any reason," said Mary Beliveau, political action committee director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.

Beliveau said most abortions are done for social reasons and therefore abortion has become a method of birth control for many people.

"The point of this law is to outlaw abortion in cases of convenience," Arlinghaus said.

Ursula Sherrill Burns, spokesperson for Centre Countians for Choice, said labeling most abortions as birth control or convenience abortions is an unsympathetic way of looking at unwanted pregnancy, which can be a crisis in a young woman's life.

"What right does the state have to bring tragedy to their lives?" Sherrill Burns said.

Simons said the provisions of the Idaho bill are insulting to women because they assume women are incapable of making decisions about their lives and their bodies.

Beliveau said Pennsylvania pro-life activists will watch the Supreme Court's rulings on abortion laws throughout the country before making any decisions on new, stricter abortion laws for the state.