Topeka ? The state lawmaker who pulled a mask off a cockroach-costumed abortion protester at the Kansas State Fair is preparing to defend himself against a misdemeanor battery charge.

Rep. Vaughn Flora, D-Topeka, faces a pretrial hearing Dec. 19 in Reno County for coming in contact with Troy Newman, president of Wichita’s Operation Rescue.

The incident occurred as Newman and a colleague, also dressed as a cockroach, paraded through an audience of 2,000 people during a debate between Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her Republican challenger, Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia.

Newman said their objective was to express a belief that Sebelius didn’t do enough to make certain that abortion clinics maintained sanitary conditions.

Flora, wearing a Sebelius shirt, yanked the mask from Newman’s head. Newman complained that he suffered a small cut.

Reno County prosecutors responded by filing the charge against Flora. He is alleged to have made physical contact with Newman in a “rude, insulting and angry manner.”

“We’re not really out for blood,” Cheryl Sullenger, outreach coordinator for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said Friday in an interview. “There’s a way to behave in public. If you don’t agree with our speech, you can’t just attack someone.”

Sullenger said an apology from Flora was in order.

Flora, facing a maximum of less than one year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted, said he was not taking the situation lightly. He won re-election in November.

Flora described the cockroach protest as “outrageous.”