Illinois lawmakers last week introduced a bill that would increase inspections of abortion clinics and subject them to new architectural rules that could threaten to close many of the state’s clinics.

HB 3274, introduced by six Republicans and one Democrat, is a targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) bill; it would create what abortion access advocates say are unnecessary restrictions designed to close clinics and create stigma around abortion.

Facilities that perform at least 50 surgical abortions in one year, or just more than four per month, would be defined as “pregnancy termination specialty centers” under the law and would be required to be licensed to by the state.

Such centers would be required to abide by strict architectural standards set up by the bill, including related to the size of exam rooms, the number of recovery beds, the size of hallways and corridors, and the availability of toilets, among other requirements.

“The point of the bill is not to shut down any clinics,” Emily Zender, executive director of the anti-choice group Illinois Right to Life Committee, told the Chicago Sun Times.

Yet similar laws have shut down clinics in other states. Most famously, the number of abortion clinics in Texas dropped to just eight last September, after a provision in the state’s omnibus anti-abortion law went into effect requiring clinics follow ambulatory surgical center regulations. (There are currently 16 abortion providers in Texas, as the law makes its way through the courts.) And the only abortion clinic in the northern part of Alabama decided to give up its license after failing to comply with harsh TRAP laws passed by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature.

“These laws were designed with one purpose in mind: to shut down women’s health centers and prevent patients from accessing safe and legal abortion along with the comprehensive preventive health-care services that women’s health-care centers provide,” Katherine Greenier, director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said about a Virginia TRAP law similar to the one proposed in Illinois.

That law is being re-written by state health officials.

HB 3274 would also subject Illinois abortion clinics to a minimum of one state-run inspection per year. Clinics are currently inspected every three to four years.

Proponents of the bill say it will make conditions safer for women, while opponents contend that the inspections are unnecessary and restrictive.

As the ACLU of Illinois has pointed out, the bill would create a double standard by subjecting abortion clinics to “regulations not applied to other health care providers.”

The state legislature is considering a number of other anti-choice bills this session, including an ultrasound bill and a proposal to ban abortion after 20 weeks.

Democrats hold a 71-50 advantage in the Illinois house and a 40-20 advantage in the senate.