By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

The Kansas Legislature is testing Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on the abortion issue.

Earlier this session, the GOP-dominated Legislature sent the Democratic governor a bill requiring doctors to make ultrasound or fetal heartbeat monitorings available to patients before abortion procedures.

The bill was a win-win situation for abortion opponents. If Sebelius signed it, they'd get what they wanted. If she vetoed it, they'd raise a fuss in advance of her Senate confirmation hearings for the job of U.S. health and human services secretary.

Sebelius signed the bill.

Now, with Sebelius's appointment still pending in Washington, Kansas lawmakers have upped the ante.

They've sent the governor a bill that would allow patients and their relatives to sue doctors for damages if they came to believe that a late-term abortion was illegal. Physicians would also have to give a detailed medical accounting to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment after performing a late-term abortion.

Sebelius has to veto this bill. The provision allowing lawsuits would open the door to manipulation of patients by the anti-abortion activists who monitor every activity at the Wichita clinic where late-term abortions are performed. The provision calling for more detailed medical diagnoses raises concerns about patient privacy.

With the U.S. Senate on recess, it's likely Sebelius will have to take action on the Kansas bill before her confirmation vote. Give the Kansas Legislature its due -- Sebelius has been a nemesis to its anti-abortion faction, and those lawmakers have now jammed her between a rock and a hard place.