Ashford sees abortion epidemic

LINCOLN Six low-income women have told a south Omaha health clinic that they will opt for abortions because they cannot afford prenatal services, which are no longer government-funded.

The report from the OneWorld Community Health Centers, coupled with the earlier confirmation of an abortion by a Schuyler, Neb., woman, prompted at least three state senators to say Thursday that the issue has reached a “crisis” level.

They said the Legislature must revisit the controversial issue.

“It's not just a crisis, this is an epidemic of abortion,” said Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford. “This is totally contrary to the values of our state, which are to protect unborn children. The Legislature has to come together on a solution, just like we did on the safe haven crisis. If we don't, these abortions are going to continue.”

He spoke one day after a bill was killed that would have restored government-funded prenatal services for low-income women, including illegal immigrants.

Omaha Sens. Jeremy Nordquist and Heath Mello echoed Ashford's reaction.

“As a pro-life legislator, I don't think I can sit back and do nothing,” said Nordquist, who called the numbers shocking. “If we really want to prevent abortions, we really need to do something.”

The issue of whether to fund prenatal services with tax dollars has pitted the state's major pro-life and medical groups against a pro-life governor and groups that oppose illegal immigration. Gov. Dave Heineman has spoken out repeatedly against the tax-funded program.

Opponents argue that taxpayers should not fund services for women who are here illegally, and they contend that churches and private groups will pick up the slack.

Because of a federal directive, the state cut off government-funded prenatal care as of March 1 for about 1,500 Nebraskans, including 840 women here illegally.

Advocates of restoring such preventive care maintain that it makes fiscal sense to ensure that these babies are born healthy and contend that charities cannot afford to pick up the tab.

The babies, they point out, automatically become U.S. citizens upon birth and thus qualify for government-funded deliveries and post-delivery health care. They say expensive care for premature births, difficult deliveries and birth defects could be headed off by spending about $775 per case for prenatal care.

Dr. John Jackson of Schuyler told The World-Herald on Wednesday that he knew one pregnant woman who opted for an abortion because she could not afford prenatal care herself and that another woman was considering it.

Dr. Kristine McVea, chief medical officer of OneWorld clinics, said Thursday that six pregnant women in the past two weeks have said they would seek abortions rather than enter the clinic's prenatal program.

The program costs as little as $30 per visit and might add up to $500 or $600 eventually if an ultrasound test was done, she said. By comparison, a Lincoln abortion clinic charges $550 for the procedure and $500 for the “morning after” abortion pill.

McVea said she has been flabbergasted by the response from her mostly Hispanic patients, who have a strong cultural and religious aversion to abortion.

She said she can count on one hand the number of abortions she has been aware of over the past decade, adding that one of the clinic's translators had never heard the Spanish word for “abortion” until the past two weeks.

“I just really underestimated how the loss of prenatal care would push so many people into doing something that ordinarily they would never, ever consider,” McVea said. “It's a lot of fear. Uncertainty drives a lot of women to choose an abortion.”

She added that although the clinic is offering to help the women pay for prenatal services and reassures women that the government will pay for deliveries, the women don't trust that information.

“We tell women, ‘It's going to be covered, you don't have to worry,' ” McVea said. “But there's a lot of fear because they've been turned down once.”

Heineman did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. He has previously acknowledged that the issue was a tough one, on which reasonable minds will differ.

The bill's failure is attributed by many to Heineman's rejection of a proposed compromise earlier this week and senators' desire to avoid an emotional election-year debate on immigration.

But Ashford said the Legislature needs to “be strong” and craft its own solution. He pointed out that a year ago, lawmakers specifically exempted the granting of prenatal aid from a law passed to ban state benefits for illegal immigrants.

Ashford compared the current situation to the crisis over the state's old safe haven law. That required a special session of the Legislature to stop the nationally publicized parade of troubled children being dropped off at Nebraska hospitals.

The senator said he will seek a bill to which an amendment could be added, funding a prenatal proposal, possibly another compromise that finds some money to help the unborn children.

“At the very least, there needs to be a debate,” Ashford said.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, the speaker of the Legislature, expressed some skepticism about the chances of a new compromise. He said the compromise he helped craft this week once had more than 30 votes before they “dissolved” to less than 25 after the governor announced his opposition to it.

Flood, though, didn't mince words when told that six other women were now seeking abortions.

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” he said.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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