A group of Nebraska lawmakers said Monday that they plan to resurrect a bill to restore prenatal care to poor and illegal immigrant women by attaching it to a pro-life priority bill.
If successful, the focus of the debate could shift from one hot-button issue to another from illegal immigration to abortion.
State Sens. Brad Ashford, Heath Mello and Jeremy Nordquist, all of Omaha, talked about their strategy to revive prenatal funding after meeting Monday with officials at OneWorld Community Health Center in south Omaha.
The lawmakers requested the gathering to learn more directly how low-income women are dealing with the state's decision to end Medicaid funding for prenatal services for poor women, many of them undocumented.
Dr. Kristine McVea, chief medical officer of OneWorld clinics, reiterated to the senators that six expectant women have told her staff in the past few weeks that they would seek to abort their babies rather than enter the clinic's prenatal program. That compares to about four abortions McVea said she knew of in the past decade.
A doctor in Schuyler, Neb., also said last week that one patient had turned to abortion and that another was considering one.
“That is why this has now taken on a new light,” Mello said. “The unfortunate proof has been brought to life.”
The Omaha senators said they have the support of about a half-dozen fellow legislators who hope to attach Legislative Bill 1110, the prenatal services restoration bill, to LB 594, the priority bill offered by Sen. Cap Dierks of Ewing. The Dierks bill would require abortion providers to conduct certain patient screenings before performing an abortion or risk a lawsuit.
Dierks was unavailable for comment Monday, but his aide said the senator was receptive to the idea.
The debate over whether to fund prenatal services with public dollars has pitted the state's major pro-life and medical groups against a pro-life governor and groups that strongly oppose illegal immigration.
Joining other opponents in arguing that taxpayers should not have to fund services for illegal immigrants, Gov. Dave Heineman has declined to resume state funding for the prenatal care, as he could have done administratively. He contends that charities and churches will pick up what the government has cut off.
Nordquist said the abortion alternative should serve as a “wake-up call” to legislators and as motivation to restore a service the state had supported for at least 20 years.
“We don't want the state to be a partner in the death of a baby,” Ashford said.
“This is not an immigration issue,” he said. “This has always been a 100 percent pro-life issue.”
Ashford said the prenatal services in question are less about the pregnant immigrants than about children who will become U.S. citizens upon birth. As citizens, they qualify for government-funded deliveries and post-delivery health care.
He said expensive care for difficult births could be avoided by spending about $775 per case for prenatal care.
Mello noted that not all those affected by the cuts are immigrants here illegally.
Also at Monday's meeting was an aide to Sen. Colby Coash, who supported LB 1110.
While Coash doubts that framing the matter as an abortion crisis will drum up the necessary votes to revive the prenatal services, he wants the issue debated and on the record.
“That's the legislative branch's role, to make policy in a public forum,” he said.
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444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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