Topeka ? Atty. Gen. Phill Kline promised Tuesday to fight to require health care professionals to report underage sexual activity, saying a new federal lawsuit attacks the state’s ability to protect children from abuse.

At issue in the lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Wichita, is whether the state can compel doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers and others to report all instances of underage sex as evidence of child abuse. Kline contends the law requires it because sex involving someone under 16 is illegal in Kansas, whatever the circumstances.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York advocacy group, contends that requiring reporting when the sex is consensual and involves two young partners violates their privacy and discourages them from seeking counseling or medical treatment. The center also argues that the law is confusing for health care professionals.

Kline said Tuesday that if the center prevailed, the Legislature cannot require health care professionals to report child rapes and sexual abuse, and the state’s efforts to protect children will be hindered.

“They’re saying the Legislature does not have the right to require the reporting of a child rape, and I believe that is entirely wrong,” Kline said during an interview.

But Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the center, said Kline was mischaracterizing the lawsuit. She said it was an attempt only to give doctors discretion in whether they reported some consensual sexual activity.

“To call it a broad-based attack is inaccurate,” she said.

The center’s attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of Aid for Women, a Kansas City, Kan., clinic; five doctors, three social workers, two nurses, a psychologist and a sex educator. The defendant is Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston, but Kline’s office plans to represent her.

In July, Kline issued an opinion dealing mostly with abortion and the question of whether doctors must report a pregnancy as evidence of child abuse. Kline said that because sex involving someone under 16 was illegal, it was inherently harmful, requiring a report to law-enforcement officials or the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

However, Kline acknowledged the opinion was broader and could apply to any sexual activity involving minors under 16.

In the lawsuit, the center argues that Kline’s opinion contradicted one issued in 1992 by then-Atty. Gen. Bob Stephan, creating confusion.

“It’s pretty clear that the law is not clear,” Jones said. “Doctors, psychologists and social workers should not be subject to a vague law.”

Furthermore, Jones said, if young Kansans avoid medical care or counseling, “That’s a public health problem for everyone.”

In a statement Tuesday, Stephan described Kline’s opinion as “an extension” of his and said he believed the Legislature had the right to impose such a reporting requirement.

Kline said he did not — nor do county prosecutors — plan to pursue cases of consensual sex involving two young partners. But, he said, the reporting requirement makes more likely that an adult’s abuse of a child will be discovered.

In Wichita, Diana Schunn, a Via Christi Regional Medical Center nurse who is co-director of the Kansas Sexual Assault Network, said it was common for a child or a parent or guardian to regularly attempt to mislead a health professional about the child’s sexual activity.

Sometimes, she said, the parent or guardian is involved in illegal activity, such as prostitution. Sometimes, she said, the child is intimidated. More often, she said, a child is being manipulated or does not want the abuser to be in trouble.

If a health care professional takes statements at face value and does not report the case, Schunn said, then abuse may not come to light.

“The intent is to make sure there is no harm to children,” she said. “There’s just a lot of complexity in these cases, other than letting kids make their own decisions.”

Jones said the lawsuit was not attacking the state’s authority to fight child sex abuse. However, she said even if consensual sex between two youngsters was illegal, “That does not mean sexual abuse has occurred.”