Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison points out the charges that have been filed against Wichita doctor George Tiller during a news conference in Topeka. Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges Thursday against Tiller, a high-profile abortion provider, alleging the doctor had an improper financial relationship with a consulting physician on late-term procedures.

Topeka ? Regardless of the outcome of the 19 misdemeanor charges filed against Dr. George Tiller, Attorney General Paul Morrison says his investigation is closed.

“From our perspective, it’s over,” Morrison said recently.

That pronouncement has angered anti-abortion advocates.

Late last month, Morrison filed charges alleging that Tiller violated the state’s late-term abortion law by having a financial relationship with the consulting physician who is required to sign off on the procedure.

Morrison identified that physician as Dr. Kristin Neuhaus, of Nortonville, who once operated an abortion clinic in Lawrence. It closed in 2002.

The state law restricting late-term abortions says two physicians must agree to the procedure after determining that terminating the pregnancy is necessary either to save the life or protect the health of the woman. The law says the two physicians must be legally and financially independent of one another.

The charges stem from abortions done in 2003. Tiller was the doctor charged because he performed the abortions, Morrison said.

Both Tiller and Neuhaus have denied, through their attorneys, any financial relationship.

But opponents of abortion say Neuhaus has been the consulting physician for years on more than 19 late-term abortions.

Opponents ask: If Tiller and Neuhaus have had a financial relationship, as Morrison alleges, shouldn’t more charges be filed?

“An independent special prosecutor needs to be assigned who can look at records for 2004, 2005, 2006, and finish the investigation,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life.

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said Tiller and Neuhaus “had a symbiotic relationship in which neither of them could benefit financially without the other. Tiller very likely violated this portion of the law hundreds of times.”

But Morrison said he will not look into the matter any further.

“We’re going to have our hands full with this for a while, and one thing we didn’t want to do was poke around in more medical records,” he said.

Neuhaus’ attorney, Jack Focht, has declined to say when Neuhaus worked with Tiller. Morrison will only say she no longer does.

Morrison, who supports abortion rights, inherited the Tiller case from his predecessor in the attorney general’s office, Phill Kline, whom he defeated in November. Morrison has claimed that Kline, an ardent abortion opponent, pursued Tiller for political reasons.

After his defeat, but before leaving office, Kline filed charges against Tiller, alleging the physicians failed to justify late-term abortions and improperly reported the procedure to state officials. The charges were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

Anti-abortion advocates say Morrison’s justification for ending the investigation – that he doesn’t want to invade the privacy women by reviewing their medical records – is false. The anti-abortion advocates say the identity of women receiving abortions always would be redacted from the records.