Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
LINCOLN — Nebraska's Catholic bishops are turning up the heat on Gov. Dave Heineman to reverse his opposition to government-funded prenatal care for low-income, illegal immigrants.
In a letter Wednesday to the governor, Omaha Archbishop George Lucas, Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and Grand Island Bishop Thomas Dendinger expressed their “high level of concern and disappointment” with Heineman's position.
“This is an important and urgent pro-life matter,” the letter stated. “Denying prenatal coverage care in these circumstances of family poverty is an affront to human dignity and pro-life principles.”
Last week, Heineman announced his opposition to a bill that would restore government-funded prenatal services to low-income pregnant women who are in the U.S. illegally. He called it a difficult issue but said he opposes government-funded services for illegal immigrants.
Heineman's opposition put him at odds with the state's major pro-life groups, including the Catholic Conference, which lobbies for the bishops, and Nebraska Right to Life.
The bishops' letter pointed out that such unborn infants will automatically become U.S. citizens upon birth. It makes “abundant sense,” the letter stated, to provide such care from a human rights standpoint but also from an economic standpoint because it will head off more expensive health care needs after birth.
“What's worse, the lack of access to coverage ... could be a decisive factor in leading some pregnant women to choose abortion over childbirth, each time a tragedy,” the letter said.
A spokeswoman for Heineman said he was traveling Wednesday and had not yet read the letter.
About 31 percent of Nebraskans, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, identify themselves as Catholic, the largest single religious denomination in the state.
The prenatal care measure, Legislative Bill 1110, is still being considered by the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
