RICHMOND -- Democrats on the Senate Education and Health Committee used their new, two-thirds majority Thursday to kill a slate of three abortion-related bills.

Even before this year, the committee had, under the chairmanship of moderate Republican Russ Potts, a reputation for inhospitality for any bills seeking to restrict abortion.

But after Democrats won a Senate majority in November's elections, they stacked the Education and Health Committee with a partisan supermajority, 10 to 5. And when three Republican-sponsored bills regarding abortion came up Thursday, the Democrats voted as a bloc to kill them.

The votes likely set the tone for how similar bills will be treated between now and 2011 -- when all 40 senators are again up for election.

The bills did not directly address abortion but were related to it:

n Senate Bill 437, the most hotly debated, would require the regulation of all abortion clinics as ambulatory surgery centers.

n Senate Bill 542 would prohibit school divisions from providing abortions, while also prohibiting any group providing abortions from also providing information or course materials on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases.

n Senate Bill 762, sponsored by Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Botetourt County, would create a Class 1 misdemeanor charge for anyone who coerces a woman to have an abortion, and a Class VI felony if the woman is older than 18 and it's the father who's coercing.

The first of those, sponsored by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier County -- who was elected to replace Potts after he retired -- drew the most controversy.

Vogel said SB 437 was "not meant to be an abortion bill," but rather to address the issue of women's health. She and other bill advocates argued that requiring more regulation of abortion clinics would make them safer for any woman having surgery done there.

The House version of the bill, sponsored by Del. Matthew Lohr, R-Rockingham County, passed out of the full House of Delegates by a 60-37 vote last month.

Opponents of the bill, however, argued that abortion is a safe procedure and that other outpatient clinics for procedures such as plastic surgery and optometry are also exempt from the regulation.

Jessica Honke, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said abortion clinics are already regulated by the state Department of Medicine and the state Board of Health Regulations. Adding new regulations, she said, could put up to 20 abortion clinics out of business.

Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, said he worried that ideological views had colored committee members' votes on the bill.

"We're probably going to be here for the next 10 years dealing with this issue, but I think the committee has so ingrained themselves on the pro-life, pro-choice battle, that nothing -- nothing -- can end up working its way through, no matter how good for women," Newman said.

SB 542 attracted debate as well. Its sponsor, Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said it was intended to keep Planned Parenthood from offering abortions through schools. Honke said the group does not offer abortions and is restricted from even talking about them in schools.

"I want to make it clear if we're bringing Planned Parenthood into our schools, that they're not to be providing abortion services," Obenshain said.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said SB 542 seemed to be "a bill in search of a problem."

Vogel, Obenshain and Smith's bills were each killed by party-line votes.