EDGEWOOD — Northern Kentucky's public health board is backing proposed legislation that would require participants in a federal family planning program to seek parental consent when they prescribe the pill and other birth control to girls under 18.

        The letter is being sent just months after members of the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Board attempted to make their agency the first in the nation to decline federal Title X dollars for family planning services on the basis that the standard birth control pill can cause abortions.

        That proposal was defeated 14-13, with board Chairman Greg Kennedy casting the tie-breaking vote on June 19.

        Current law requires agencies receiving Title X money to prescribe contraceptives to girls under 18 without notifying their parents or securing their consent.

        In a letter sent this week to Northern Kentucky congressmen, the health board, which serves mostly low-income clients in Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Grant counties, asks federal legislators for help in changing that law.

        In fiscal year 2001, health board members estimated, 400 to 500 girls under 18 were prescribed birth control pills, IUDs and Depo Provera at Northern Kentucky's public health clinics.

        Spokesmen for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, and Congressman Ken Lucas, D-Union, said they had not yet received the board's request.

        Mr. Lucas is a co-sponsor of parental notification legislation that's expected to be introduced in the House this month.

        The vote to send the letter was 16-5, with one abstention.

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