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PHOENIX — The state House approved a new ban on partial-birth abortions Tuesday in hopes of this time getting the approval of Gov. Janet Napolitano.

SB 1048 is the second time the House approved making the procedure a crime. This version alters two provisions Napolitano cited earlier this month when she vetoed the original measure.

The measure deals only with a procedure for late-term abortions in which the fetus is partially out of the mother's body when it is killed.

A 1997 state law would have banned the procedure, but the law was voided by a federal judge before it ever took effect.

In 2003, however, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on partial-birth abortions. Abortion foes used the federal law as a template for the first bill sent to Napolitano.

But the governor said they were not identical.

Federal law limits a doctor's punishment to no more than two years. The state legislation could have resulted in longer prison terms.

Federal law also allows a doctor charged with breaking the law to seek an opinion from a medical board that the procedure was necessary to save the life of the mother, one of the permitted exceptions to the ban. That provision was not included in the first bill at the request of the Arizona Medical Board, which did not want to have to make those decisions.

SB 1048 alters both provisions to mirror federal law.

The altered bill now goes to the Senate, which has previously approved a similar proposal.

But whether the changes will help the legislation avoid the veto stamp remains unclear.

Napolitano, in her earlier veto message, gave herself some latitude to reject the new version, suggesting there were more important priorities for lawmakers.

"Rather than introducing more criminal penalties into the relationship between a woman and her physician, let us focus our collective efforts to remedy the root issue of unwanted pregnancies by addressing such important topics as family planning and the prevention of sexual violence against women," the governor wrote.

The 31-24 House vote came after a plea from Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Chandler, who was born four years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

He told colleagues his birth mother had been a drug user and he was born premature and addicted. Nichols said it was only because of Arizona's abortion laws — not yet overturned by the high court — that his mother did not terminate the pregnancy.

"This is human life we're talking about here, not a choice," said Nichols, who has supported every effort to restrict abortion in Arizona since becoming a lawmaker in 2003.