Abortion opponents have shown they have a supermajority in the Kansas Senate as a vote approaches on new restrictions for providers.

Senators planned to take final action Tuesday on a bill blocking tax breaks for abortion providers and prohibiting them from furnishing materials or instructors for sex education classes in public schools.

 

During a debate on the measure Monday, anti-abortion senators repeatedly defeated amendments offered by senators who support abortion rights.

Abortion opponents consistently had at least 27 votes, a two-thirds majority in the 40-member Senate.

The Senate retained language directing doctors to provide information to women about a disputed potential link between abortion and breast cancer before terminating their pregnancies.

Meanwhile, a new abortion clinic is scheduled to open in Wichita this week, the first since former abortion provider George Tiller was killed nearly four years ago.

The South Wind Women’s Center will provide abortions up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, as well as other services.

Clinic director Julie Burkhart, who worked for Tiller for seven years, says the clinic will open when last-minute details are worked out sometime this week.

Three doctors will work on a rotating basis at the clinic. Abortion opponents are vowing to force the clinic to close.

 

Burkhart says security will be heightened at the clinic and patients will be safe.

Tiller was gunned down in 2009 at his church in Wichita by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder.