Wichita ? The special prosecutor appointed by outgoing Attorney General Phill Kline to handle the thwarted case against a well-known abortion provider has asked a Kansas judge to again consider reinstating the charges.

Special Prosecutor Donald McKinney filed a motion, made public Wednesday, asking the court to vacate its decision to dismiss the 30 misdemeanor charges against Dr. George Tiller.

Kline, a Republican and abortion opponent, has tried unsuccessfully for the past two weeks to get his criminal case into court. District Judge Paul W. Clark threw out the case over a jurisdictional issue and already has refused to reinstate it.

Kline alleges Tiller performed 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003, for patients aged 10 to 22, and failed to properly report details about them to state health officials. Tiller’s attorneys call those allegations groundless.

Kline, whose leaves office Monday, appointed McKinney as special prosecutor to handle the case, but Attorney General-elect Paul Morrison, a Democrat and abortion-rights supporter, has said he won’t retain McKinney.

No hearing has been set on McKinney’s motion, which was filed Friday.

Tiller has received national attention because he is among a few doctors in the United States to perform late-term abortions. His clinic has been the site of large protests, and it was bombed in 1985. A protester shot the doctor in both arms in 1993.

Clark ruled that Kline didn’t have the authority to file charges against Tiller because Kansas law required him to obtain the consent of District Attorney Nola Foulston, and Kline did not.

In his motion, McKinney said the court erred, that the Legislature granted the attorney general the authority to enforce abortion-reporting laws and to prosecute charges in the county where alleged violations are found.

McKinney also cited Kansas cases he said show the attorney general has the right to control a prosecution.

On Wednesday, abortion opponents went to Foulston’s office to try to persuade her to let the attorney general’s office prosecute Tiller or to pursue the case herself. They were met in the lobby by Georgia Cole, a spokeswoman for Foulston who said she would pass on their concerns.

Abortion foes said after their meeting that they were “stonewalled” in their efforts by the DA’s office, who they contend is engaged in a turf war.