Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Just as quickly as Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline filed charges against late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, a county judge threw them out. The decision highlights a battle between Kline and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, who claims Kline can't file the charges.

Kline official filed charges Thursday against Tiller, who operates an abortion business in Wichita.

Tiller has been the subject of an investigation into abortions on teenage girls who were victims of sexual abuse and whether or not he did illegal late-term abortions on women for reasons of "depression" rather than legitimate emergency medical reasons allowed under Kansas law.

Friday afternoon, Judge Paul Clark dismissed the charges at Foulston's request without notifying Kline or his office. The order came just hours after Kline's charges were unsealed.

In a statement provided to LifeNews.com, Kline said Foulston's argument that he does not have authority to file charges against Tiller was false.

"As Attorney General I have initiated hundreds of filings without the permission of the legislature or the Governor and consistent with my common law and statutory authority of the office," Kline said.

Kline said the objection was particularly concerning because he and his staff met with Foulston Thursday afternoon and she agreed Kline had the authority to present the charges.

Foulston also sent Kline an email thanking him for the meeting.

"The charges brought are the result of a multiyear investigation involving the review of thousands of pages of documents, numerous sworn statements and testimony by witnesses and expert review of records and documents," Kline added.

The include 30 misdemeanor charges involving 15 abortions Tiller did from July through November 2003. The involve abortions on young women under the age of 22, including a 10 year old.

Kline also said he would seek to overturn Judge Clark's decision and reinstate the charges.

The state's top attorney has been dueling with Tiller and a Planned Parenthood abortion center in Overland Park for over a year as he's tried to access patient records to prove his case.

Dan Monnat, the lawyer for Tiller, says Kline has no basis for the charges and said the patient records he obtained through a court order show no evidence of wrongdoing. Monnat told the Associated Press the abortion businesses may go after Kline.

"We also intend to explore any and all means of holding Kline personally responsible for his malicious actions," Monnat said.

"The filing of criminal charges by Phill Kline is the last gasp of a defeated and discredited politician," the attorney said. "Rather than executing his duty as a prosecutor to see that justice is done, he has chosen to engage in a malicious and spiteful prosecution on the eve of Christmas."

Kline was defeated in his bid for re-election in November by pro-abortion John County attorney Paul Morrison, who has criticized Kline over the probe but has flip-flopped on whether he would drop the investigation.

Mark Simpson, a spokesman for Morrison, said he would not comment on the charges because he hadn't seen them.

The charges may not be prosecuted if Morrison decides to drop the case, although Kline is slated to replace Morrison as the county attorney and may pursue the charges there.

Kansans for Life, a statewide pro-life group, applauded the charges.

"Tiller and his lawyers can scream and curse and call law enforcement officials all the names they want, but if he has broken duly passed Kansas laws, he deserves to be brought to justice," Mary Kay Culp, the group's director, said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

Tiller escaped prosecution in the January 2005 death of Cristin Gilbert, a 19 year-old mentally disabled girl he killed in a botched late-term abortion. State officials said he followed state laws in doing the abortion.