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lays the groundwork for what could be a future challenge to the 1973 Supreme Court decision that confirmed a woman's right to late-term abortions.
• The two sides in the abortion debate agreed at least on the importance of the measure.

• National Right to Life Committee legislative director Douglas Johnson said it was the "most significant piece of pro-life legislation to come before the House since the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act" that was enacted in 2003. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill "clearly is an attack on women's constitutional right to choose and is one of the most far-reaching bans on abortion this committee has ever considered."
• The legislation defies the 1973 ruling which made most abortions legal up to the point that a fetus is viable, generally considered to be at least 24 weeks.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- A key committee in the Republican-led House is preparing to cast its first votes on immigration this year, on a tough enforcement-focused measure that Democrats and immigrant groups are protesting loudly.
• Meanwhile in the Senate, a Republican lawmaker is floating a compromise border security proposal he hopes can win over support for sweeping immigration legislation under consideration there.
• The House enforcement bill, by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., would empower state and local officials to enforce federal immigration laws, make passport and visa fraud into aggravated felonies subject to deportation, funnel money into building more detention centers, and crack down on immigrants suspected of posing dangers.
• Gowdy said the measure, which the House Judiciary Committee takes up Tuesday, would ensure enforcement of immigration laws he accused the Obama administration of ignoring, and offer the promise of real security.
• "Nothing undercuts the fabric of this republic like people picking and choosing which laws they're going to enforce, when they're going to do it, when it's politically opportune for them not to do it," Gowdy said at a recent hearing on his bill, the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act. Of local law enforcement, he said, "If you're good enough to do homicide cases then I trust you to do immigration cases."
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