The contentious debate over abortion returns to the Capitol this week as the state Senate begins debating a proposed abortion ban.

Passed by the state House in January, the proposed ban would outlaw all abortions except those to save a woman's life. It was dubbed the "trigger ban" because the measure would only take effect if the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision is overturned.

This week's action begins at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the proposed ban.

Although the ban passed the House by a 61-26 vote with little debate, it's hard to predict what its fate in the Senate will be. The Senate's Republican majority is much slimmer than the House's, but the abortion issue often crosses party lines, pitting socially conservative Democrats against socially moderate Republicans.

Rep. James Kerzman, the bill's sponsor, is a rural Democrat from Mott who wants to end abortion because he believes it's the taking of a human life.

In its current form, Kerzman's bill makes it a felony to perform an abortion in a post-Roe world. Abortion, as defined by the bill, includes drugs used to terminate a pregnancy.

Tim Stanley, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota said his organization is taking the bill "enormously seriously."

Stanley said Planned Parenthood has already initiated a campaign urging abortion rights supporters to contact their lawmakers.

"For us, keeping the abortion decision between a woman and her doctor is a top priority," he said.

On the other side North Dakota Right to Life and the North Dakota Catholic Conference are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stanley said his organization has already initiated a campaign of letters and phone calls to legislators and will ramp up this effort if the bill continues to advance.

"The Legislature, we think, is going to take a common sense approach and say this bill goes too far for North Dakotans," he said.

Christopher Dodson, executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, expects a different result.

The only reason North Dakota doesn't already have an abortion ban is because of Roe v. Wade, he said.

Dodson said a trigger ban will allow what he calls a pro-life Legislature to express its wishes.

"It puts us on record that that''s what we want," he said.

Kerzman's bill was chosen by the Republican-controlled House over a more extreme abortion ban.

The more extreme measure did not allow any exceptions, could have penalized the woman seeking an abortion and did not include a trigger mechanism based on Supreme Court action. Because it lacked such a trigger, this bill could have led North Dakota into a national legal fight over abortion.

The House also rejected two other abortion measures - one that would have included abortion-inducing drugs to state abortion regulations and another that would have banned genetic testing for diseases where the only known "cure" is to abort the baby.

On the Senate side, the Republican leadership invoked a rarely used legislative procedure to table a bill that proposed granting citizenship rights to fetuses.

Calling the bill "bizarre," Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, said he used the procedure because nobody wanted to debate or vote on that bill.

Stenehjem said he hasn't yet decided whether a similar tactic will be employed on the abortion ban bill.

"Anything is possible, but it certainly isn't planned," he said. "We haven't even discussed it."

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@bismarcktribune.com)