The House has passed bills that would:

— Make abortion clinics meet stricter operating standards.

— Make it a felony to partially deliver a fetus and then kill it. This would outlaw a rarely used late-term procedure that opponents call "partial-birth abortion."

— Require girls under 18 to obtain their parents' consent before obtaining an abortion. Currently, state law requires only parental notification.

Most of those proposals are faring well in the Senate, where anti-abortion bills have stalled in past years.

The Senate Education and Health Committee has approved the measures involving parental consent and "partial-birth infanticide." The panel deadlocked 7-7 on the bill requiring abortion clinics to meet the same standards as outpatient surgery centers.

Delegate Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, sponsored the parental consent bill that passed the House 70-29 on Saturday. Fifty-nine Republicans, nine Democrats and two Independents voted for the measure.

"Parental consent restores the authority of parents over the medical decisions of their children. This is not a decision for strangers to make; it's up to the parents who love and nurture their daughters," Black said.

"Current law requires parents to consent for every medical procedure except abortion. A girl can't have her ears pierced or teeth cleaned without her parent's consent."

He said parental consent would reduce abortions by 24 percent.

"This bill promises to save more lives than any piece of legislation passed in the Commonwealth of Virginia," Black said. "If this is the last thing I ever do in the General Assembly, my time would have been a success."

Black also is sponsoring a bill authorizing a specialty license plate that says "Choose Life." Proceeds from sales of the specialty plate would support adoption counseling programs. The House Transportation Committee approved the "Choose Life" bill on a 13-6 vote Saturday. Opponents say the plates would be divisive and unconstitutional.

Opponents of the parental consent bill said some girls are afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancy. They fear such girls will seek unsafe procedures to end their pregnancy.

Gov. Mark Warner has expressed concerns about the parental consent measure, saying that parental notification appears to be working.

Delegate Karen Darner, D-Arlington, said the proposed legislation is unnecessary and potentially harmful for women's health.

"In general, these bills are not needed and will send us back 40 years to the back-alley, dangerous, non-parent-involved abortions," she said.

Darner said that legislators cannot force parents and their children to communicate, and parental consent laws won't deter a minor determined to obtain an abortion.

"As long as kids know how to cross the border, they will be able to get the counseling and help they need, whether or not an abortion is performed," she said. "Forced communication between parent and child should not and cannot be legislated, and you would think legislators understand that."

Sara Love, deputy legal director for the National Abortion Rights Action League, also criticized the bill making abortion clinics meet tougher standards. She said the intent is to make access to abortions more difficult and expensive.

"Abortion is one of safest procedures in the U.S.," Love said. "This bill has nothing to do with women's health. It's all about denying women access to their right to choose."

Love also objected to the "partial-birth infanticide" bill. She said its purpose is to ban a variety of abortion procedures and "to inflame public opinion and misinform public opinion."

State health officials have no record of a Virginia doctor conducting a so-called "partial-birth abortion," Love said.

In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down laws banning such abortions because the language was too broad and the statutes made no exceptions for a woman's health. That's why Warner vetoed a similar measure last year.