Committee Moves Toward Forcing Renewal of Charges Against Tiller

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ About 100 people rally at the Statehouse to pressure lawmakers into ordering attorney general Paul Morrison to revive the criminal case against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Yesterday a House panel passed a resolution directing Morrison to file 30 misdemeanor charges that were previously filed by his predecessor, Phill Kline.

Anti-abortion groups Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue want the House to adopt the resolution, forcing Morrison to act.

Shawnee minister James Conard called on lawmakers ``to stand up for God's moral law.''

Tiller's attorney Lee Thompson called the resolution ``a bunch of baloney.''

Morrison, an abortion rights Democrat, unseated anti-abortion Republican Kline in the November general election.

A day after Kline filed the charges in Sedgwick County, a district judge dismissed them on jurisdictional grounds.

Kline accused Tiller of violating restrictions in Kansas law on late-term abortions, and backers of the resolution said Kline's evidence should be reviewed in court. Tiller's attorneys have said repeatedly that the charges were without merit.