BATON ROUGE (AP) — Most legislation pushed by abortion opponents failed to pass during the Legislature’s just-completed session, but abortion supporters expect similar bills to arise next year.

The Legislature did approve a bill setting up a website with information on abortion alternatives and requiring that abortion clinics post signs with similar information.

But other measures died in committee, including a proposed ban on nearly all abortions, a resolution calling on Congress to withdraw funding from the organization Planned Parenthood and a bill to impose on any fetus at least eight weeks into development the same rules of disposal as required for a corpse.

Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, is one of the Legislature’s hardline abortion opponents. He is vowing to bring back his proposal to ban almost all abortions, even in pregnancies stemming from incest, and says the debate this year helped shape the bill into one that more anti-abortion groups can support.

“Overall it will be easier and better (next year) because I’m expecting more Republicans to be elected,” he said.

But groups supporting abortion rights say that the failure of three out of four bills shows elected officials don’t see abortion in the same light as LaBruzzo and his allies.

“If you look at the big picture of what happened and didn’t happen, I think the message is the legislature is uncomfortable with the kind of grandstanding that has been taking place,” said Marjorie Esman, the executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Esman and others — including the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood — say lawmakers should focus more on preventing unintended pregnancies, rather than making abortions more difficult to obtain.

Louisiana’s abortion rate is lower than the national rate, but is rising. The Guttmacher Institute says that in 2008 Louisiana’s abortion rate was 16.1 for every 1000 women aged 15-44, up from a rate of 11.7 in 2005. The national rate in 2008 is 19.6 per 100 women.

In response to the increase in abortions, opponents this year introduced a series of measures that would restrict or discourage abortion. But a bill by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, was the only one that passed both chambers.

The bill would require a website, as well as signs posted in abortion clinics, to inform women about abortion alternatives. The signs would state that it is illegal for others to coerce women into getting an abortion; that public and private agencies can help them during and after pregnancy; that the father is liable for child support; and that adoptive parents may cover the medical costs of pregnancy.

Supporters, including Gov. Bobby Jindal and Catholic authorities, say the bill would inform women of their rights, but opponents say it provides biased and incomplete information.

“It interferes with the relationship between women and their doctors,” said Julie Mickelberry, spokeswoman for the Gulf Coast chapter of Planned Parenthood. “And it actually provides increased exposure for crisis pregnancy centers that are unwilling to provide comprehensive information about women’s options when they face an unintended pregnancy.”

Hoffmann’s notification bill passed unanimously in the House and was approved by a 30-5 vote in the Senate. Jindal is expected to approve the bill, and no abortion rights supporters are currently pledging to challenge the bill in court.

But Hoffmann’s resolution calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood failed to pass the Senate Finance Committee. It had previously gained approval by the full House and the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

“The reason for that is timing more than anything else,” said Hoffmann, who said the bill fell victim to “political maneuvering.”

Mickelberry and others said the Legislature should not go on record as opposing the organization. Planned Parenthood offers services such as screenings for breast and cervical cancer — but not abortions — to women in Louisiana who can’t afford health insurance.

“The health care of women we care for shouldn’t be a political issue, and we really applaud the Senate decision to send this to Senate Finance,” Mickelberry said.

Another bill that died after being shuffled to a second committee was LaBruzzo’s controversial bill to ban almost all abortions.

The bill would have directly challenged the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision by banning abortion outright in Louisiana and would have jeopardized $4.5 billion in federal health care funding for Louisiana’s Medicaid program.

A financial analysis said the proposal would put the state at odds with a 1976 federal law requiring Medicaid to cover abortion services to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Lawmakers were also told by state officials that it would have potentially cost millions of dollars to defend the law in court.

After the House Committee on Health and Welfare voted 10-2 to approve the bill, the House as a whole voted 65-30 to send it back to the House Appropriations Committee, where it was shelved for the rest of the session.

LaBruzzo said he was able to work out a draft that, if reintroduced next year, would bring all pro-life groups on board. But Robert Tasman, associate director for the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the group still has some concerns.

“Those problems were based on it repealing the three major provisions of pro-life laws that had been long fought-for and successful, and as well that it basically defunded Medicaid to the state,” said Tasman. He could only speak to the bill as amended in the Legislature and had not yet analyzed the amendments that LaBruzzo was unable to attach to the bill.

A fourth anti-abortion bill failed to move out of committee at all.

Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, had introduced a bill to impose the same disposal rules as a human corpse on the remains of any fetus at least eight weeks old.

But the bill faced criticism from women’s health advocates, who said it would be traumatizing, and was involuntarily deferred by the House Committee on Health and Welfare in May.

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Online:

House Bills 645, 379 and 636 and House Concurrent Resolution 54 can be found at www.legis.state.la.us