BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- In sometimes gruesome testimony Tuesday, anti-abortion activists from Northern Kentucky, including Covington attorney Robert C. Cetrulo and some local doctors, implored state health officials to saddle abortion clinics with the toughest regulations possible.
"This is a procedure that cries out for good medical standards," said Mr. Cetrulo, president of the Northern Kentucky Right to Life group, during an hourlong hearing before officials from the Cabinet for Health Services.
The cabinet, acting on legislation passed by the Kentucky General Assembly earlier this year, is compiling information to draft regulations for clinics and doctors' offices where abortions are performed.
The regulations must be written and in place by March, when the licensing of abortion providers will begin, said cabinet spokeswoman Barbara Hadley Smith.
While there are only two clinics in Kentucky that regularly perform abortions -- one in Louisville; the other in Lexington -- the procedure is sometimes done by doctors in their private offices. Dr. Richard Gautrand of California, in Campbell County, president of Greater Cincinnati Physicians for Life, said doctors who perform abortions should be held to the same standards as other physicians and health-care providers.
"I would not consider burdensome" any regulations put forth by the cabinet, said Fort Thomas physician Dr. Arthur Kunath, who opposes abortion. "Any doctor who objects would not be acting in good faith. The regulations would be quite helpful for the public," he said.
The Northern Kentucky physicians, as well as doctors from Louisville and Lexington, testified that regulations for abortion providers should be at least as stringent as those for outpatient surgery centers.
Abortion clinics in Kentucky have a history of unsanitary conditions, providing poor medical service and inadequate record-keeping, said Margie Montgomery, head of Kentucky Right to Life.
Donna Wells, executive director of EMW Surgical Center in Louisville, where abortions are performed, was the only abortion-rights advocate to speak at the hearing.
She said the intent of the anti-abortion activists is not to regulate the care in the clinics, but to shut them down.
However, Jane Chiles, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the policy arm of the state's Roman Catholic bishops, said abortion providers are trying to avoid complying with regulations. Abortion providers file what Ms. Chiles called "nuisance litigation" to dodge any attempts at more oversight. And she pointed to a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union has filed to keep Kentucky's ban on late-term abortions from taking effect.
