Topeka ? House members who oppose abortion failed Thursday to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of a bill imposing additional regulations on abortion clinics.

The vote was 82-42 — two votes short of the minimum needed to send the bill to the Senate where some supporters felt they had the votes to put the legislation into law.

“I think we could have made it happen,” said Sen. Nick Jordan, R-Shawnee.

The failure to overturn Sebelius’ veto of April 15 angered supporters of the bill who vowed to campaign against House members who supported the veto and the governor in next year’s elections.

“It’s the kind of vote that’s going to come back and haunt legislators who voted against it and the governor,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life. “The people of Kansas understand the need for this.”

Pastor Joe Wright of the Central Christian Church of Wichita offered similar sentiments.

“We will continue to expose those people who refused to vote to regulate clinics,” Wright said.

Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said the threat of a political fight doesn’t surprise him.

“We will make our thousands of supporters know the legislators courageous enough to stand with the governor on this,” he said.

As for the bill, Brownlie said, “The only purpose is to make access to reproductive health care in Kansas difficult.”

Absent the bill, abortion opponents argued, only a complaint to Board of Healing Arts can result in a physician being sanctioned for unsafe conditions. They say it would have protected women’s health.

“We’re disappointed the political machinery works the way it does, that the governor peeled off key votes,” Culp said.

In her veto message, Sebelius, who supports abortion rights, criticized lawmakers for choosing “pure politics over good policy.” She said standards for operating abortion clinics should be set by medical professionals rather than the Legislature. It was the same argument she made when she spiked a similar bill in 2003.

The governor said she would have supported the bill had it applied to all surgeries performed under anesthesia in physician offices and clinics, not just abortion clinics.

The bill would have required clinics to obtain an annual license from the Department of Health and Environment, hire surgeons as their medical directors and report patient deaths to the state within the day. It also would have mandated that KDHE set standards for equipment, medical screenings, ventilation and lighting.

Lawmakers in Kansas, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia were considering bills this year to regulate abortion clinics, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The group said 26 states require some abortions be performed in hospitals or other facilities, while 23 states apply certain restrictions on abortion providers.