Topeka ? An appeal of a federal judge’s order against requiring physicians and other professionals in Kansas to report consensual sex among teenagers is highly likely, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline said Wednesday.

Kline said he and other law enforcement officials have no interest in prosecuting teenagers only for having sex, but he is concerned about how U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten’s ruling in Wichita will affect attempts to prosecute child rape cases.

“I would anticipate that we would appeal. I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and look at the decision,” Kline told The Associated Press.

The attorney general would appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Marten’s decision Tuesday came in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based advocacy group, on behalf of a Kansas City health clinic and 11 physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers and sex educators.

They sued Kline and Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston after Kline issued a 2003 legal opinion on the law requiring that suspected sexual abuse be reported.

In it, Kline noted that sex involving someone younger than 16 is illegal and said such crimes are “inherently injurious.” Thus, he said, reporting is required when a girl is pregnant, when someone younger than 16 seeks treatment for a sexually transmitted disease or when such a minor discloses being sexually active.

Marten concluded that Kline’s nonbinding opinion “contradicts the plain meaning” of the law. The judge also said the law recognizes that a minor has a right “to keep his or her sexual activity private,” absent a suspicion that a child has been abused.

The center argued that enforcing the law in line with Kline’s opinion would discourage teenagers from obtaining medical care.

“If you tell that kid, ‘If you come in for birth control, we’re going to report you,’ that kid won’t come in for birth control,” said center attorney Bonnie Scott Jones.

Kline said such arguments amounted to “a mammoth fear campaign.” He said such reporting will help law enforcement officials uncover instances in which a teenager is being abused and lies about it.

“It is irresponsible for them to try to continue to frighten the public about what this case is about,” Kline said. “I do not shy away from saying that child rapists ought to be in prison and people who know about it should report it to police.”

He added: “It’s not about teen necking. It’s not about any of those things.”

In his ruling, Marten said there was no disagreement over the reporting of incest, sexual abuse of a child by an adult or sexual activity involving a child younger than 12. The only issue was whether consensual activity by teenagers had to be reported.

Jones said the center wasn’t challenging the reporting requirement, only Kline’s legal opinion.

“It’s out of line with the norm in the United States,” she said. “In the vast, vast majority of states, the health care provider has discretion.”