Morrison alleges that Tiller broke the law by getting a second opinion for 19 late-term abortions in 2003 from Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus, of Nortonville. He contends they were financially affiliated, partly because she did her consultations inside his clinic, and the work represented the bulk of her medical practice. Her attorney says Tiller never paid her — the patients did.

Kline alleged Tiller broke the law by having insufficient grounds for the late-term abortions. Kline contends Tiller performed them for patients who suffered from problems such as anxiety or “single episode” depression — not substantial or irreversible conditions.

There’s been plenty of public back-and-forth about the strength of Kline’s case. Morrison described Kline’s case as seriously, perhaps fatally, flawed. Abortion foes believe Morrison has chosen to focus on technical violations, not bigger legal questions about how Tiller operates.

Undoubtedly, abortion foes still resent Morrison’s election. His pitch to voters was that Kline’s judgment was too clouded by his personal agenda — a code phrase for Kline’s social conservatism — to be an effective attorney general.

Abortion opponents also are upset over how Kline’s case died. A district judge dismissed it for jurisdictional reasons.

But there’s more to their frustration.

A trial of Kline’s case promised to focus public attention on the abortions themselves, not on two doctors’ professional relationship.

The anti-abortion legislators who backed the 1998 law, including Kline and Powell, wanted the new statute to block medical procedures they saw as morally abhorrent, believing most Kansans held the same view.

Here’s how they’ve repeatedly put it, charged language and all: Under the law, only true medical emergencies are supposed to allow a doctor to kill a healthy baby in the womb when that baby could survive a premature birth.

They believe it’s an outrage that viable fetuses are regularly aborted in Kansas — four a week on average in 2006, more than 2,600 since the law took effect, according to state statistics.

“The intent of the legislation was to provide an outlet for preborn children’s lives to be spared,” Newman said.

That context explains why abortion opponents like Newman remain cold to Morrison’s efforts. They’d rather revive Kline’s case — or have an independent prosecutor file a case very much like it.

That’s why they’re planning to circulate petitions to force Sedgwick County to convene a grand jury to investigate Tiller again.