WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval July 18 to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act; it was then headed to President Bush, who was expected to sign the legislation.

The bill, approved by unanimous consent in the Senate, would guarantee certain rights under federal law to children born alive, even if it occurs during an abortion. The House approved the legislation by a voice vote in March.

In another abortion-related action, the House Judiciary Committee on July 17 approved the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, designed to respond to concerns raised in the U.S. Supreme Court's Stenberg vs. Carhart decision in 2000.

The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act would amend the legal definitions of "person," "human being," "child" and "individual" to include a live birth that has occurred as part of an abortion procedure. The bill defines a child as "born alive" only if he or she displays a heartbeat, respiration and/or voluntary movements after "the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother."

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said the legislation was needed because "some newborn infants, especially those who are born alive during abortions, have been treated as nonpersons."

"This bill says that every infant born alive, even during an abortion and even if premature, is a full legal person under federal law," he added.

In a statement last March, the Bush administration said it "strongly supports" the legislation which "would ensure that infants who are born alive, at any stage of development, are individual human beings who are entitled to the full protections of the law" and "would provide guaranteed legal protection whether or not the infant's delivery was natural or the result of an abortion."

Also last March, Cathy Cleaver, director of planning and information at the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, called the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act "common-sense legislation that is unfortunately needed at this time when lives of children born and unborn are becoming increasingly seen as more expendable."

"This bill simply addresses how we as a society should see the child who survives an abortion, and how we should define that," she added.

In a statement July 18 praising the House Judiciary Committee's 20-8 vote, Cleaver called partial-birth abortion "a particularly cruel and unnecessary procedure that Americans have grown to hate."

The House has three times approved bills banning partial-birth abortions, and the legislation passed Congress twice but was vetoed by President Clinton on both occasions. President Bush has said he would sign a bill to ban partial-birth abortion.

More than half the states have enacted laws to ban partial-birth abortion, and polls have shown that at least 70 percent of Americans support such a ban.

"Americans agree: Partial-birth abortion has no place in a country which believes in compassion and dignity for all," Cleaver said. "Unborn children suffer terrible pain, and women suffer risks to their health. This procedure must be stopped."