Pittsburgh — The House of Representative’s vote last week to ban “partial-birth abortion” came as a shock to me. I had anticipated the outcome, but was shaken by the imminent reality of a federal law that actually makes it a crime to perform a type of abortion.

Congress, over the years, has restricted access to and funding of abortion services. Both houses of Congress in the past have also passed similar “partial-birth abortion” bans.

But, in the end, calmer heads have prevailed, and these measures have always died, either by a failure of one chamber of Congress to pass the law in the same congressional session or by a presidential veto.

However, we now live in a different time. Enactment of the ban is all but guaranteed. The Senate passed it in March and President Bush has repeatedly pledged to sign it once it reaches his desk.

We are thus, at the brink of a major setback in our fight to maintain reproductive rights in this country.

“Partial-birth abortion” is not a medical term; it is a political term. Abortion opponents claim that the ban would outlaw only a specific and rare abortion procedure used in the late stages of pregnancy.

In truth, the legislation is worded so vaguely that it could be interpreted to apply to the most common abortion procedures, used at all stages of pregnancy. The Supreme Court has already ruled that this vagueness is unconstitutional.

In 2000, in a case called Stenberg v. Carhart, the court struck down a nearly identical Nebraska “partial-birth abortion” ban in part because the law’s language was so vague that doctors might be hesitant to perform legal abortions out of fear of prosecution, conviction and imprisonment under it.

The impending enactment of the “partial-birth abortion” ban should alarm not only reproductive rights activists and abortion providers, but also anyone who cares deeply about religious rights in this country.

As the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade recognized 30 years ago, women, in deciding whether or not to terminate a pregnancy, often draw on their religious and moral beliefs. When the government outlaws an abortion procedure, it intrudes on the province of religion to guide these sorts of decisions.

The “partial-birth abortion” ban particularly offends our Jewish values because it does not contain an exception to permit the banned procedure when necessary to preserve a woman’s health.

Under Jewish law, the preservation of a woman’s health — physical and mental — is the paramount consideration in deciding whether an abortion is permissible.

Congress’ approval of this bill gives all religious groups — Christian, Jewish and other religious communities — a wake up call to join together to reclaim the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

It is our right as Americans to consult our own religious beliefs, free from government interference, in matters as intimate as abortion.