Topeka ? A bill strengthening regulation of abortion clinics easily won House approval Monday, but Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she hoped legislators would rewrite it so it also applied to other health care providers.

The House’s 87-36 vote sent the measure to the Senate, where a similar bill died last year. In 2003, Sebelius, who supports abortion rights, vetoed a similar measure.

“I think having a set of standards that is put together by doctors and applies across the board makes very good sense, and I would love that to reach my desk,” Sebelius said.

The margin in the House was three votes more than the two-thirds majority necessary to override a governor’s veto.

In the Senate, the Public Health and Welfare Committee plans to have a hearing today.

Its chairman, Jim Barnett, R-Emporia, said the bill might have momentum because of recent events. One was a reported death in January of a Texas woman who had received services at a Wichita abortion clinic. Another was a $1,000 fine levied by the state against a doctor for conditions at his Kansas City, Kan., clinic — a sanction anti-abortion advocates saw as too mild.

“I think the issue is more elevated now,” Barnett said. “I believe there is a much higher level of concern.”

The House bill applies only to abortion clinics and would require their licensing by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The bill also would set minimum health and safety standards.

The department regulates hospitals and outpatient surgery centers, but not clinics or doctor’s offices where minor surgeries are performed under local anesthesia. State law puts abortion clinics in that last category, though their doctors are regulated by the State Board of Healing Arts.

Sebelius said she would support a bill having KDHE regulate all clinics and offices performing minor surgeries.

The bill’s supporters, who also generally oppose abortion, contend regulation of the clinics is too weak, leaving women in danger. Abortion rights supporters contend the real goal is to make regulation burdensome enough to force clinics out of business.

Clinic regulation is HB 2503.

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