U.S. Gun Charges Filed in Abortion Clinic Slayings : Courts: The indictment is meant to hasten the alleged gunman’s extradition to Boston. A federal death penalty case is called a possibility.

John C. Salvi III, accused of abortion clinic shootings in Massachusetts and Virginia, was indicted here Wednesday on federal charges of carrying a firearm across state lines to commit a felony.

The indictment by a federal grand jury is intended to ensure that Salvi will be returned to Boston swiftly, averting a lengthy battle over his extradition from Virginia, where he is in custody for shooting up an abortion clinic. Salvi is sought in Massachusetts for more serious offenses: allegedly killing two receptionists and wounding five other people at abortion clinics in suburban Brookline.

Elsewhere Wednesday, the Justice Department moved to prevent a Warren, Ohio, man from threatening to harm a doctor who provides abortions at two women’s health clinics in the Midwest. It was the first use of the department’s authority to protect a doctor under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The actions in the Salvi and Ohio cases signal an intensified federal effort to counter violence or the threat of violence at abortion clinics.

In the case of Salvi, the federal charges could avoid a months-long battle over extradition to Massachusetts. The 22-year-old apprentice hairdresser from Hampton Beach, N.H., went to Norfolk, Va., after the two women were killed Friday.

Salvi was arraigned Tuesday in Norfolk on charges of firing 23 shots at an abortion clinic there Saturday, but Virginia authorities agreed to hold off trying Salvi until after his proceedings in Massachusetts.

In Washington, Carl Stern, the Justice Department’s public affairs director, said: “We think the interests of justice require his prompt return to Massachusetts.”

Once in Massachusetts, “a decision will be made as to what further charges may be brought against Mr. Salvi, and in what order state and federal authorities will proceed against him,” said Donald K. Stern, the U.S. attorney in Boston.

Salvi also faces the possibility of federal charges that carry the death penalty, although no decision has been made to seek those, a government source said.

Massachusetts law does not provide for capital punishment, but the crime bill passed by Congress last year added 47 crimes to the federal death penalty list, and two of those could be argued to apply to Salvi.

Hearings before state and federal authorities for Salvi are scheduled for today in Norfolk, and he could be returned to Massachusetts as soon as late today, according to a spokesman for William Delahunt, district attorney for Norfolk County, Mass.

After a massive manhunt, Salvi was arrested Saturday and charged with firing into the glass doors of the Hillcrest Clinic, Norfolk’s only abortion clinic. No one was injured.

Federal authorities are known to be investigating what led Salvi to Norfolk and the abortion clinic there, after his alleged shooting spree in Brookline.

After their first meeting on Tuesday, his court-appointed attorney, Tazewell T. Hubard III, described Salvi as “a very responsive, intelligent young man.”

Hubard said Salvi was upset because he was alone and had asked to be moved into the general inmate population.

“I just think he wants to be with people,” he said.

Salvi has also asked to see a Roman Catholic priest, and he asked Hubard for addresses for the Catholic bishops in Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida, where his parents live. He plans to send letters to the bishops, Hubard said.

In the Ohio case, the Justice Department alleged that Alan M. Smith made death threats last June against Dr. Gerald B. Applegate, who performs abortions in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Youngstown, Ohio.

The department suit also alleged that Smith tried to run Applegate off the road and that Smith and another individual prevented Applegate’s wife, who works as a nurse at her husband’s office, from entering their Pittsburgh office. After the road incident, Smith was charged under Ohio law with felonious assault and menacing by stalking. Those charges are still pending.

While out on bond, he violated court-imposed restrictions on his activities, the Justice Department complaint said.

The federal suit seeks tougher restrictions on Smith, including barring him from communicating in any way with Applegate, protesting within 25 feet of the property line of his residence or engaging in a list of activities near his offices.

“Congress passed the clinic entrance law to protect women’s constitutional rights to reproductive health services, and we intend to use civil as well as criminal processes to see that the law is respected,” said Deval L. Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Mehren reported from Boston and Ostrow from Washington.