Washington ? The House voted Wednesday to ban a procedure that abortion foes call “partial-birth” abortion, moving the restriction a crucial step closer to President Bush’s signature.

With the 282-139 vote, Congress was on the verge of ending a practice that Rep. Steve Chabot said was “truly a national tragedy.”

Abortion rights groups said they would challenge it in court as soon as it becomes law, thrusting the issue of the ban’s constitutionality toward a divided Supreme Court.

The ban would be one of the most significant restrictions on abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision recognizing abortion rights. Ken Connor, president of the anti-abortion Family Research Council, said passage was indicative of “a tide that is running against Roe v. Wade, which will eventually be dismantled.”

President Bush hailed passage of the legislation he said would “help build a culture of life in America. I urge Congress to quickly resolve any differences and send me the final bill as soon as possible so that I can sign it into law.”

Bush — unlike former President Clinton, who twice vetoed partial-birth abortion bans — had urged Congress in his State of the Union address in January to give him a bill he could sign.

The administration strongly believes the bill “is both morally imperative and constitutionally permissible,” the White House said.

The Senate passed a nearly identical bill in March, but differences with the House must still be ironed out before the legislation is sent to the president. Likely to be deleted: nonbinding language added by the Senate in support of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Under the bill, partial-birth abortion is defined as a procedure in which the fetus is killed after the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, “any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother.”