TOPEKA (AP) – Abortion opponents are struggling this year to push proposals through the Kansas Legislature.

The agenda for lawmakers remains crowded with other big issues and even some anti-abortion legislators want to rest after a string of victories last year.

A bill giving health care providers greater legal protections if they refuse to be involved in abortions has cleared the House, but it faces skepticism. A more sweeping measure designed to keep Kansas from subsidizing abortions even indirectly has stalled in the House.

The contrast is sharp with last year. That’s when lawmakers approved a series of measures that put the state at the front of a trend in which abortion foes capitalized on the election of sympathetic Republican governors like Kansas’ Sam Brownback.