Opponents of abortion said Thursday they expect that, led by a re-elected President George Bush, the new Congress that will be sworn in next January will be more likely to move forward on an agenda to limit access to legal abortion, embryonic stem cell research and human cloning.

“The increased pro-life strength in the new Senate will improve the prospects for some bills that in the past have been stymied by filibusters and anticipated filibusters,” Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told reporters at a post-election news conference.

Of nine new members of the Senate, seven oppose abortion rights, according to the NRLC.

While four of those seven replace Senators who were also abortion opponents, Johnson said he was hopeful that even a small increase will help move bills that have passed the House repeatedly in recent years, but have foundered in the Senate.

At the top of that list, he said, is the Child Custody Protection Act, which would make it a crime to take a minor across state lines for an abortion in contravention of the girl’s home-state parental involvement law.

Johnson said he is also hopeful that the Senate will take up and pass a House-passed ban on all human cloning, including the cloning of embryos for research.

A new bill abortion foes say they intend to push is the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act,” which would require doctors to provide a woman seeking an abortion after 20 weeks gestation with information about potential fetal pain, and require her to sign a form accepting or declining administration of a pain-relieving drug to the fetus during the procedure.

But abortion foes have already run into their first roadblock. The incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, is a supporter of abortion rights. This week he warned President Bush not to send up strongly anti-abortion nominees for judicial appointments.

Abortion rights backers are also not giving up, despite their election setbacks.

“We have been fighting restrictive laws that penalize low-income women, young women, and their families since 1992 - and have won many times, including two landmark Supreme Court decisions,” said Nancy Northup, President of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The biggest fight, both sides agree, will come over nominations to the Supreme Court President Bush is expected to make. While abortion opponents will seek to ensure potential justices would vote to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, those on the other side are vowing not to let that happen.

“We will work to defeat any Supreme Court nominee who is hostile to Roe v. Wade,” said Northup. “The Court is one to two votes away from overturning Roe, and we are committed to making sure this does not happen.”