Topeka ? Legislation limiting late-term abortions in Kansas is being drafted by a House committee chairman who wants a joint panel he leads to review the proposal next month.

“I’m having it written and will bring it before the committee to vet it and see if it’s constitutional,” House Federal and State Committee Chairman Arlen Siegfreid said Thursday.

Siegfreid, R-Olathe, also is chairman of the Special Committee on Federal and State Affairs, made up of six House members and three senators, that will make recommendations for the 2008 Legislature.

He said the bill would prohibit abortions after the 21st week of gestation, except when the mother’s life is at risk. He noted that any abortion involving a fetus 22 weeks or older is considered late term under the law.

“The big question is whether it will stand up to a constitutional test,” Siegfreid said. “The question is whether we have to include mental health after the 21st week.”

The state’s current law says late-term abortions can be done when a fetus can survive outside the womb only if two physicians agree the mother’s life is at risk or that continuation of the pregnancy would cause her substantial and irreversible harm to a major physical or mental function.

Over the years, late-term abortions have accounted for only a small percentage of the procedures performed in Kansas. Last year, of the 11,221 abortions performed in Kansas, 380 involved a fetus in the 22nd week of gestation or later, according to state statistics.

Siegfreid said when the committee meets the week of Aug. 27, it wants to talk to the attorney general’s office, state health officials and the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which licenses and regulates physicians in the state.

“We want to talk to them about their internal procedures and what they see as their responsibility,” he said. “We want to see if what they see as their roles matches the law.”

The committee’s work comes during a legal dispute surrounding Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, one of the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortions.

“You’ll see a lot of discussion about whether the abortion law is working as intended,” Siegfreid said.

Several lawmakers believe that disagreements between Attorney General Paul Morrison and his predecessor, Phill Kline, over interpretation of the 1998 late-term abortion law points up the need to review it.

When Kline was attorney general, he fought a two-year battle to get patient records from Tiller. He filed 30 misdemeanor charges against Tiller in December, all dismissed by a judge over a jurisdictional issue.

In June, Morrison said Kline’s charges lacked merit, then charged Tiller with 19 misdemeanor counts of getting a second opinion from a doctor who wasn’t financially independent of him, as the law requires. Tiller has countered with a motion challenging the constitutionality of the law restricting late-term procedures.

“We will stand in opposition to any type of legislation that would limit women’s reproductive health care services,” said Julie Burkhart, a lobbyist for ProKanDo, a political action committee Tiller formed.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, said the focus should be on the law already on the books.

“The current law needs to be enforced, so I’m not ready to talk about other legislation. That distracts from the discussion about the current law,” she said. “I think it’s a shame the current law isn’t being properly interpreted by Mr. Morrison and enforced.”

The committee also plans to consider the affect on Kansas’ law by a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a nationwide ban on a procedure opponents call partial-birth abortion, a ruling both sides said could pave the way for further restrictions.