WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nine days after Al Gore stumbled over whether pregnant women on death row should be executed, the Republican-controlled House tweaked the vice president by pushing an "innocent child protection" bill to prohibit states from putting to death mothers-to-be.

"This bill is to ensure that a convicted killer doesn't kill again, namely the unborn child in her womb," said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa. <.p>However, the bill -- introduced two days after the vice president's hesitation -- clearly had a presidential campaign slant as representatives criticized him personally: Gore's position is "breathtakingly insensitive," said Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J.

The bill passed unanimously Tuesday.

The GOP jumped on the issue July 16 when the Democratic presidential nominee awkwardly declined to say on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether he supported a federal law that would bar the execution of pregnant women.

Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush -- who has presided over more than 130 executions as Texas governor -- immediately said the choice to exempt pregnant women from executions was easy for him to make.

The next day, Gore said he does support the law and he noted that such a woman also would have the right to choose whether to have an abortion. "I support the statute to spare that hypothetical person," Gore said. "It should be her right to choose."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., introduced the bill last Wednesday, saying there were 51 women on state death rows in January and that all 38 death-penalty states don't have laws to protect pregnant women from being executed.

"No unborn child can possibly be guilty of committing a crime, therefore no unborn child should be punished by death," she said.

There are 50 women on state death rows now, according to a June report by Victor Streib, dean of the Claude W. Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University. The 51st, Betty Lou Beets, was executed in Bush's state, Texas, in February.

Democrats found themselves fighting for states' rights in their opposition to the bill. Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y, called the bill an "unbelievable intrusion into state law" and accused Republicans of partisan politics. "If there's a TV show that can give us a temporary political advantage by the introduction and passage of a bill, let's do it regardless of the Constitution," he said.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, noted that the states' rights issue would probably end up in court. "The execution of pregnant women is already illegal under federal law and it is doubtful that the Supreme Court will uphold our edict on the state courts," Conyers said. "This bill is likely to affect no one, but it is rushed through at lightning speed to satisfy some political need."

Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., said there were international treaties banning the execution of pregnant women and the federal government has the right to uphold those treaties.