Senate sends abortion reporting bill to Sebelius

? Doctors who perform abortions would be required to provide state health officials detailed information about each late-term abortion and whether the fetus was abnormal under a bill sent Wednesday to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

While backers argued the bill will give Kansans better data about abortion, opponents viewed it as an attempt to harass doctors and clinics.

Sebelius supports abortion rights and vetoed bills in 2003 and 2005 to single out abortion clinics for special regulation by the Department of Health and Environment. But spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said the governor hasn’t formed an opinion on the reporting bill.

The final version was drafted by legislative negotiators. The House approved it 89-34, and the Senate passed it 25-15.

Doctors already have to send the health department annual reports on the number of abortions they’ve performed. When the fetus is at least 22 weeks old, the doctor must show it couldn’t survive outside the womb or that the patient faced death or “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

The bill would expand how much information goes to the state to spell out how a woman would have been harmed without the procedure.