Kansas lawmakers approved sweeping anti-abortion legislation on Friday that says life begins at fertilization, forbids abortion based on gender and bans Planned Parenthood from providing sex education in schools.

In addition, the measure requires women to learn about fetal development before having an abortion.

The measure now goes to the desk of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who opposes abortion, and is expected to sign it.

The House passed the bill 90-30, The Associated Press reported. The Senate approved it by a 28-10 vote, according to Reuters.

Republicans have large majorities in both houses.

"This fulfills the legislative intent to create a pro-life state," Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life, told Reuters before the House vote.

Thirteen states, including Missouri, have similar language to the Kansas bill in their laws, the AP reported, citing the National Right to Life Committee.

The Kansas legislation is the latest in a push by national abortion opponents for new restrictions on the procedure. Those limits are seen as a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion.

Late last month, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed the nation’s strictest anti-abortion measures into law. One statute bans abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

An Arkansas law approved over Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto prohibits most abortions after about 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion rights groups say they will challenge the new abortion laws in court.

Though the Kansas bill defines life as beginning at fertilization, it does not ban abortion from that point.

Reuters contributed to this report.

North Dakota’s governor signed the nation’s strictest anti-abortion measures into law Tuesday, including one statute that would ban most abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple authorized three bills previously passed by state legislators, the most controversial of which prohibits abortion procedures once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen early in the first trimester.

The Republican governor also approved a measure that restricts abortions based on gender selection and genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome.

The measures may set the stage for a legal challenge from abortion-rights advocates who consider the prospective laws challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion up until a fetus is viable – typically at 22 to 24 weeks.

Dalrymple addressed the potential legal battle in a statement released after he signed off on the bills.

“Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade,” Dalrymple said in the statement.

Legislators in the state House endorsed three other anti-abortion measures last Friday that are pending Dalrymple's signature. Two of the three prospective laws would ban abortions after 20 weeks, except in medical emergencies, and require doctors performing abortion procedures to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

State House representatives also approved a ballot referendum that would let voters declare that life begins at conception. However, the referendum doesn't need Dalrymple's signature and will be part of the state's 2014 general election ballot.

The Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota's sole abortion provider, said state legislators' hospital provision "is clearly intended to regulate abortion out of existence in North Dakota."

"Admitting privileges are not easily come by under any circumstances, but more importantly, such a requirement gives hospitals the power to decide whether abortion is even available in the state," the clinic said in a statement.

Rep. Vernon Laning, a Republican from Bismarck, defended the hospital measure as a safeguard for women who have complications during their pregnancies.

"It ensures the physician is well-qualified to address the problem," Laning said on the House floor. "I certainly think a woman undergoing a procedure would want as many safety precautions as possible."

Rep. Kylie Oversen, a Democrat from Grand Forks, said House Republicans had taken a giant step toward making North Dakota the most dangerous state in the U.S. for pregnant women, NBC station KMOT of Minot reported.

"As a young woman who has not yet had the privilege of becoming a mother, I want to know that when I make a decision to do so, any already difficult decision that I must face with my physicians and my family will not be complicated by legal matters, by an overreach of state government," Oversen said.

One day after proposing a bill that would classify having an abortion after rape or incest as "tampering with evidence," a Republican legislator in New Mexico said Thursday she is clarifying the intent of the legislation.

New Mexico Rep. Cathrynn Brown on Wednesday introduced House Bill 206, which would criminalize "procuring or facilitating an abortion," or "compelling or coercing" someone else to get an abortion after rape or incest, as destroying evidence.

Read the original bill in PDF

Some Democrats and opponents of the proposal said that under the bill's original language, female victims of rape or incest who become pregnant might be criminally liable if they have an abortion.

But in a statement sent Thursday to NBC News, Brown said the bill was not intended to criminalize rape victims, but rather a rapist who might force the victim to have an abortion.

"Its intent is solely to deter rape and cases of incest. The rapist — not the victim — would be charged with tampering of evidence. I am submitting a substitute draft to make the intent of the legislation abundantly clear," Brown said in the statement.

Brown, who represents a southeastern New Mexico district, is endorsed by a "Right to Life" organization, according to her campaign website.

University of New Mexico Law Professor Antoinette Sedillo Lopez told NBC News this bill might be designed to have "a chilling effect" on women's right to exercise their choice on abortion.

"It is not typical that a fetus would be used as evidence in a rape case," Sedillo said. Testimony by the victim, bodily damage and semen are generally used as evidence in cases of rape, she added.

Brown's first proposal has abortion rights advocates unhappy.

"Any elected official who wants to put criminal liability (on) survivors of rape or incest is cold-blooded," Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement to NBC News.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico released a statement Thursday condemning the proposed legislation.

"This bill is wrong, and should never see the light of day in any legislature in this country, let alone New Mexico," state party chairman Javier Gonzales said in the statement. "The War on Women in America has to stop. No woman should ever be forced to carry a child for 'evidence,' plain and simple."

A representative from the Right To Life Committee of New Mexico said organization officials could not immediately comment Thursday, as they are still analyzing the bill.

A spokesman for the office of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, sent a statement to NBC News Thursday evening: "Governor Martinez dedicated her career as a prosecutor to being a strong voice for crime victims and would never support any bill that re-victimizes rape survivors," said spokesman Enrique C. Knell.

The issue arose the same week as the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. The landmark Jan. 22, 1973 decision affirmed a women’s right to choice based on privacy.

Kelly Glasscock / Getty Images file

Flowers are seen in front of the Women's Health Care Services abortion clinic and serve as a memorial to Dr. George Tiller's death May 31, 2009 in Wichita, Kansas.

The shuttered Wichita abortion clinic formerly operated by the late Dr. George Tiller has been bought by an abortion-rights group that intends to reopen it as a family and women's health center that will offer abortions, among other services, the group's executive director said Wednesday.

Julie Burkhart said the Wichita-based non-profit group Trust Women Foundation Inc. purchased Tiller's former clinic in late August. Erin Thompson, an attorney for Tiller's widow, Jeanne, confirmed the sale.

Burkhart, a former Tiller employee who also founded a separate Trust Women political action committee, has said for months that she was trying to raise money for a new clinic in Wichita. Most of Kansas, except for the Kansas City area, has been without an abortion clinic since an anti-abortion zealot murdered Tiller at the doctor's church in May 2009.

Tiller was among a few U.S. doctors known to perform abortions in the final weeks of pregnancy, but Burkhart said the new clinic won't offer such services, largely because Kansas legislators have tightened restrictions on late-term procedures. But she said the new clinic will perform abortions earlier in pregnancy as part of a wide range of obstetrical and family care.

Burkhart declined to discuss the details of the sale, but property tax records available online list the appraised value of the property as $734,100. Burkhart said she can't say yet exactly when the new clinic will open or how many doctors will work there.

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"It's about more than abortion. We're about serving the needs of women," Burkhart said during a telephone interview. "Thousands of women right now have to travel three hours-plus for medical services. It's a burden on women. It's a burden on women's families."

Kansas has three abortion clinics, but all are in the Kansas City area. The Wichita Eagle first reported the sale of Tiller's former clinic, based on public records.

Abortion opponents have been watching for signs that a new clinic would open in Wichita, and earlier this month, anti-abortion groups said they expected Burkhart to open one early next year.

"It is tragic Burkhart appears poised to re-engage in destroying unborn children and exploiting women for money," Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said in a statement Wednesday.

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In a recent advertisement circulated by email to abortion-rights supporters, Trust Women said it was looking for medical staff experienced in first and early-second trimester abortions and planned to open its clinic between mid-November and January 2013.

Burkhart said the group looked at seven or eight buildings but concluded others were not the correct size or needed too much renovation. Tiller's former clinic, with 8,800 square feet of space, had been listed for sale starting in 2010.

"We never looked at renting," Burkhart said. "Frankly, this building was the best building. It made the most sense for us."

But when Tiller operated the clinic, it was the site of regular protests by abortion opponents, including large "Summer of Mercy" demonstrations both in 1991 and 2001. Burkhart was a clinic employee and ran ProKanDo, a PAC formed by Tiller, from 2002 to 2009.

Mark Gietzen, president of the Kansas Coalition for Life, said in a statement this week that his group, which coordinated years of daily protests outside Tiller's clinic, would restart its efforts should another abortion clinic open in Wichita, the Wichita Eagle reported.

"KCFL volunteers intend to be on-site to offer financial help, housing, and other forms of direct support to abortion-bound women who feel forced into having an abortion by circumstances beyond their control," Gietzen said in the statement.

Burkhart acknowledged the building's past was an issue in the search for a new clinic site but said the good that can come from reopening it as a medical center "outweighs any stigma that people might see."

"We want to work to take the abortion piece of health care out of the corner and normalize it," Burkhart said. “Women should not be ashamed. Women should not be intimidated."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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