WASHINGTON — The fate of several pro-life measures is once again in the hands of the U.S. Senate during this congressional year.

The Baptist Press reported that the House of Representatives already has given approval or seems ready to approve several measures, but abortion-rights activists wield more power in the Senate.

Foremost on the pro-life agenda is confirmation of federal appeals court nominees. Senate Democrats already are blocking votes on five nominees, all of whom they fear will support pro-life decisions.

Additionally, with both presidential and congressional elections set in November, pro-life members of Congress expect election-year delays on legislation.

Last year's enactment of the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act and recent polls indicating the general public is becoming increasingly pro-life, however, buoy hopes.

"I do know Senator (Bill) Frist has been supportive of any number of measures on the cloning and pro-life front," said Brian Hart, press secretary for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a pro-life leader in the Senate.

Brownback is pushing a bill in the Senate that would prohibit cloning for the purpose of reproducing a child as well as cloning with the intention of creating an embryo on which to perform research, the news service reported.

Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch, a fellow Republican, and his allies, however, have backed a measure that would permit research cloning while banning reproductive cloning. Hatch's bill would not allow an embryo to live beyond 14 days.

Among the significant pro-life measures that have yet to receive floor votes in either chamber are:

• Unborn Victims of Violence Act (S. 1019/H.R. 1997). Approved by the House in both 1999 and 2001 but never acted on by the Senate, this bill would recognize an unborn child as a crime victim when he is injured or slain during the commission of a federal offense against his mother.
• Child Custody Protection Act. (S. 851/H.R. 1755). The law would make it a federal offense for a person to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion when the state in which the girl lives requires either parental notification or consent before such a procedure.
• Abortion Nondiscrimination Act (S. 1397/H.R. 3664). This law would clarify that federal law protects the consciences of medical students who do not want to learn how to do abortions, doctors who are opposed to performing abortions and healthcare entities that do not want to offer abortion services.
• Informed Choice Act (S. 340/H.R. 195). The bill would authorize $3 million a year in grants to nonprofit organizations to purchase equipment in order to provide free ultrasound tests for pregnant women who desire them.