WILDER — Twenty-seven Northern Kentuckians — doctors, nurses, housewives and executives — will take a vote Wednesday that may open a new chapter in the national abortion debate.

        American Civil Liberties Union lawyers in New York are watching the too-close-to-call vote and may sue the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Board if it votes to reject federal Title X dollars for family planning services, said Beth Wilson, reproductive freedom project director for the ACLU of Kentucky.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The Northern Kentucky Independent Health Department will vote on June 19 whether to reject federal Title X family planning funds. The funds pay for birth control pills, which some board members think cause abortions, and for other women's health services. Should the health board reject the funds?    Yes    No    Not sure Some people think the standard birth control pill causes abortions by changing a woman's uterine lining in such a way that a fertilized egg can't implant. Do you agree?    Yes    No    Not sure View current results

IF YOU GO

• What: Vote by Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Board on whether to reject federal Title X funding to provide family planning services.         • When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The vote is the last item of business.         • Where: Marquise Banquet & Conference Center, 1016 Town Drive, Wilder (near the Town and Country Sports Complex and Great Escape cinemas).         Although the meeting is open to the public, no public input will be accepted before the vote. The public had a chance to speak on the issue at the health board caucus May 9 or by sending in written comments.         At 8 p.m. Monday, on Insight Cable Channel 54, four people on both sides of the issue will take part in a Kentucky Tonight panel discussion on whether the Northern Kentucky health department should stop dispensing birth control pills.

        The measure would essentially classify standard birth control pills as abortion agents, rejecting federal funding for them that now goes to the local health department.

        If the measure is approved, the board would be the first in the nation to reject Title X family planning money on the grounds that it pays for contraceptives that cause abortions.

        “We have enough image problems in Kentucky,” Ms. Wilson said. “We don't need to take this major step backward.”

        In a full-page ad that ran in area daily newspapers three weeks ago, Northern Kentucky Right To Life, an anti-abortion group with considerable clout, criticized the use of public tax dollars for contraceptives that it says cause abortions — including the IUD, Norplant and standard birth control pills.

        “People are seeing that the distribution of these materials is bad morals, bad medicine and bad public policy,” said Robert C. Cetrulo, president of Northern Kentucky Right to Life. “It makes poor public policy to pass out materials which kill unborn babies, promote promiscuity and have disastrous societal results.”

        Mr. Cetrulo and some of his group's members have been lobbying for more than a year to have the dispensation of birth control pills ceased on the grounds that they are “chemical abortions.”

        The group bases its argument on the birth control pill's alteration of the uterine lining to prevent implantation of any fertilized egg.

        Northern Kentucky Right to Life is not affiliated with National Right to Life, which does not take a direct position on the birth control pill and refused further comment.

        Health Board Chairman Greg Kennedy, who would vote only in case of a tie, said the vote of the 29-member health board is too close to call.

        An Enquirer poll of all 29 board members shows seven votes will go to keep the funding and five will go to reject it. The rest couldn't be reached, wouldn't say or were undecided.

        Two members — Dr. George T. Donvan and Dr. Stephen Hilz — confirmed they will not be present for the vote.

        Board bylaws do not allow proxy or absentee votes.

        Hundreds are expected to attend Wednesday's health board meeting for the historic vote.

        To accommodate the expected crowd, Wednesday's meeting has been moved to a 550-capacity meeting room at the Marquise Banquet & Conference Center in Wilder.

        On a local level, the decision would affect the 4,500 low-income women in four counties who depend on Northern Kentucky health centers for their reproductive health.

        One health board member, Grant County Judge-executive Darrell Link, has hinted that a decision to reject Title X dollars could prompt several counties to pull out of the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Board and form their own health district.

        Said Health board member Dr. William Threlkeld II, a Grant County family physician: “Since life begins with the union of the sperm and egg, I will be forced to vote against any funding which mandates the use of birth control, specifically the IUD, which interferes with the growth and development of the human embryo.

        “It is unfortunate that our legislators have put me in a position to vote to forgo this funding for much-needed services in order to protect the sanctity of human life. I remain optimistic that other sources of revenue can be identified which will allow us to continue needed services without the stipulation we provide the IUD.”

        Both Dr. Threlkeld and Mr. Cetrulo said they also are concerned that contraceptives can be provided to minors without parental consent.

        Teen-agers 13 to 17 make up about 15 percent of those receiving contraceptives and other gynecological care from the Northern Kentucky Independent Health District, while 78 percent of women receiving federal Title X services are 18 to 35, and 6 percent are 36 or older.

        The health board membership includes 10 doctors, seven registered nurses, a pharmacist, two veterinarians, an optometrist, a dentist, two homemakers, a Cincinnati Bell executive, a CEO in group practice management and three elected officials.

        Health board members are nominated by county judge-executives and approved to the district board by the county health boards.

        The Northern Kentucky health board has an annual $170,000 allotment of federal Title X dollars for family planning services. Services include pap smears, breast exams, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and a range of contraceptives excluding RU-486, the so-called morning-after pill.

        If the board votes to no longer accept that money, the allotment would be phased out over three months. Although the state would be required to find another provider, no one knows how long that would take or who it would be.

        State health officials have said there could be a gap in services as long as several months. Even if an alternate provider is found, some women in the four-county district might not be able to get there.

        “We are a county that has people of low or moderate income who are absolutely dependent on those services,” said Mr. Link, who described himself as anti-abortion but will vote to keep the Title X funds.

        An alternative provider of Title X family planning services would likely be based in Cincinnati or Boone, Kenton or Campbell counties — putting them out of reach of rural Grant County users with inadequate or nonexistent transportation, he said.

        Besides Title X dollars, another $45,000 to $50,000 in state funds to prevent birth defects also could be at stake, said Dr. Steve Davis, director of of the division of Adult and Child Health in Kentucky's Department for Public Health in Frankfort.

        Throughout Kentucky, the folic acid program that fights spina bifida by providing expectant mothers information about and access to folic acid supplements traditionally finds about 90 percent of its target population in Title X family planning programs. To continue receiving that money, the Northern Kentucky health board would have to submit a plan outlining how it would target women of child-bearing age.

        Even those who don't use the services locally are watching the vote closely.

        Four hundred people attended a public hearing on the issue last month. Since then, people on both sides of the issue have sent dozens of e-mails and letters to everyone from Kentucky's governor to state health officials to local health board members.

        “To me, this comes down to a fundamental difference on when life begins,” said Kim Brannon, a 36-year-old Florence mother of two. “This is not where to go with that.”

        Mrs. Brannon said she doesn't use the health department's family planning services, but fears a vote to cut federal Title X dollars “would take these services away from the women who need them the most.”

       E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com or ssteitzer@enquirer.com

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