Topeka ? Kansas is preparing to require annual, unannounced state inspections of abortion clinics and to impose new regulations on them long sought by anti-abortion groups.

Abortion opponents predicted Friday that the state Senate will approve the legislation later this month.

The bill would set health and safety rules specifically for abortion clinics and directing the Department of Health and Environment to write standards for exits, lighting, bathrooms and equipment. KDHE would issue annual licenses and have the power to fine clinics and to go to court to shut them down.

The health department’s new standards for abortion clinics also would have to cover sanitation, housekeeping and staff qualifications. Clinics would be required to report serious injuries or deaths of women or girls seeking abortions to KDHE, and it would make two inspections each year, one scheduled and one unannounced.

The House approved the bill on a 97-26 vote Thursday. Senate leaders planned to bypass committee and permit a single, up-or-down vote on the legislation. That way senators’ approval would send the measure to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who is expected to sign it.

Senators plan to vote on the bill after legislators return from their annual spring break on April 27, Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican, said Friday. Supporters expect the measure to pass. The Legislature approved such measures in 2003 and 2005, only to see them vetoed by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion-rights supporter.

Also, abortion opponents already have won passage of a bill tightening restrictions on abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy based on disputed claims that fetuses can feel pain and a measure requiring doctors to get the written consent of parents before performing an abortion on a minor.

“There’s a strong pro-life majority here who will vote for the bill if given the opportunity,” said Sen. Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican who opposes abortion. “I’m very pleased that it’s going to be worked.”

Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican, could have used his power as the chamber’s leader to send the bill to committee, slowing its progress. But he decided against it.

“I’ll just let it go,” he said. “Enough people here want to talk about those abortion bills, and I committed this year to let them do it.”

But Rep. Judy Loganbill, a Wichita Democrat, who supports abortion rights, said senators are moving too quickly and should take time to examine the bill.

“They don’t even know what it is,” she said.

Critics are suspicious of the legislation because it is being pushed by abortion opponents. Critics believe the real goal is to impose regulations that are so burdensome that it drives clinics out of business.

The state has three abortion clinics, all operating in the Kansas City area, including one operated by Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. The late Dr. George Tiller was known for performing late-term abortions, but no one has taken over his practice in Wichita since he was shot to death in May 2009.

Planned Parenthood lobbyist Sarah Gillooly said the bill ignores hundreds of surgical procedures in clinics and offices that have higher complication rates than abortion.

“This legislation is not only unnecessary, but the regulations also do nothing to protect women’s health or reduce the number of unintended pregnancies or need for abortion,” she said.

Supporters of the bill have repeatedly pointed to the case of a Philadelphia abortion provider who’s been charged in the death of a patient and seven viable babies allegedly killed with scissors at his clinic after being born alive. They contend the clinic regulations will protect women who seek to end their pregnancies.

“Abortion supporters claimed abortion-on-demand needed to be made legal so it would be safe, but their opposition to this and similar state-oversight bills illustrates the cold truth that their overriding concern is how many abortions they can do, not how safely,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life.

The state regulates hospitals and surgical centers, but not doctor’s offices and clinics. Instead, individual physicians are licensed and regulated by the State Board of Healing Arts. Abortion opponents have repeatedly questioned the board’s oversight.

The bill would require doctors who perform abortions to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic. A clinic’s medical director would have to be a doctor licensed to practice medicine and surgery in Kansas, and all abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy would have to be performed in a hospital or surgical center.