Topeka ? Hoping to keep any of the nation’s few late-term abortion providers from opening a clinic in Kansas, the Legislature passed a bill Tuesday to strengthen state laws restricting such procedures — but not by veto-proof margins.

The Republican-controlled Senate approved the bill 24-15. Hours later, the GOP-led House passed it 83-36, sending it to Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson, an abortion-rights supporter.

The measure would allow patients or family members to sue doctors if they have evidence an abortion violated state law. Also, doctors would be required to report more details to the state about abortions performed after the 21st week of pregnancy and involving fetuses considered viable, or able to survive outside the womb.

Parkinson hasn’t said whether he’ll reject the bill, but abortion opponents worked for the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto. They were one vote short in the House and three short in the Senate.

The slaying last year of Dr. George Tiller, of Wichita, shut down the only clinic in Kansas known for doing abortions late in women’s pregnancies.

The bill’s supporters and opponents agreed that the goal was to stop someone else from opening such a clinic.

“They want to dissuade another physician like George Tiller from setting up camp here,” said Kari Ann Rinker, a lobbyist for the National Organization for Women’s state chapter.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said that without such a measure, “There’s a red carpet leading into all four sides of this state for any abortionist who wants to come in.”

Tiller’s clinic was among a few in the U.S. performing abortions in the last weeks of pregnancy, and a 1998 Kansas law targeted abortions of viable fetuses after the 21st week of pregnancy.

It permitted such abortions only to save a woman or girl’s life or to prevent “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” Doctors must file a report with the state on each procedure.

But the state hasn’t required physicians to list the exact medical diagnosis justifying each abortion, just a statement saying it was necessary to preserve her health. The state has said none of the more than 3,000 late-term abortions of viable fetuses since the law took effect were to save a patient’s life.

Also, abortion opponents said allowing lawsuits against doctors will help patients and their families hold physicians accountable for substandard care.

Supporters and critics disagree over whether the bill’s contents would be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

Sen. Pete Brungardt, a Salina Republican who supports abortion rights, said anti-abortion legislators are using the bill to stir up their allies in an election year.

“And they’re daring the governor to veto it,” he said.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lance Kinzer, an anti-abortion Olathe Republican, said the only goal is to improve late-term abortion laws.

“We have not varied or altered in our commitment to trying to pass this language, whatever the political context,” he said.