After months of controversy, the McHenry County Board of Health decided Monday night to keep a federal program that funds reproductive services for women.
The $47,800 grant, called Title X, has sparked a dispute among county officials because it allows minors to get birth control without their parents’ consent.
The board voted 4-4 to drop the funding and the motion failed for a lack of a majority.
Passions about Title X have run high in the county since last year when a teacher from Crystal Lake is alleged to have taken a 13-year-old girl he was molesting to the county health department for birth control shots.
Because of the federal rules, the parents of the girl were not notified. The man, William Saturday, pleaded guilty last fall to sexual abuse charges.
Opponents of the federal program argue that the Saturday case shows the dangers posed by the program