Wichita ? Abortion opponents on Friday presented the Sedgwick County court with a petition bearing 7,754 local signatures, far more than needed to force a grand jury to investigate the case of a mentally retarded woman who died after having a late-term abortion.

The petition calls for a grand jury to look at the circumstances surrounding the death of Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old woman whose family brought her to Dr. George Tiller’s clinic in Wichita for an abortion in January 2005. If the signatures are found to be valid, a judge then determines whether the petition is in proper form and convenes a grand jury to decide whether to bring criminal charges.

“Today we are taking a proactive approach. We are not going to take a defensive approach any longer,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue in Wichita. “This is a proactive measure to tell the city government, to tell the people in Topeka, to tell the governor that George Tiller is not above the law.”

Lee Thompson – who represents Tiller’s clinic, Women’s Health Care Services – told reporters Friday that a grand jury would be “a waste of public resources,” adding that authorities have reviewed the case thoroughly already.

“We think that the attempt to convene a grand jury is a blatant publicity stunt by an extremist group that has absolutely no connection to the patient or to her family,” Thompson said.

Last year, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts cleared Tiller in Gilbert’s death. While an autopsy listed complications from the abortion as the cause of death, the board concluded neither Tiller nor his staff was responsible.

The grand jury petition represents the latest tactic used by anti-abortion activists in Kansas, which has become a major battleground because Tiller is one of the few doctors in the U.S. who performs late-term abortions.

Tiller’s clinic has been the target of protests for years. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and he was shot by a protester in 1993.

Abortion foes are invoking a 1970 Kansas law that allows citizens to call for a grand jury investigation if they believe local law enforcement agencies have failed to act. Kansas is one of the few states with such a law.

Under the law, a grand jury may be summoned within 60 days after a petition is presented bearing the signatures of slightly more than 2 percent of a county’s voters.

Pornography opponents used the law in Wichita last year to get an indictment against a store selling adult sexual materials.