LINCOLN — State legislators and Gov. Dave Heineman need to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk” when it comes to Christian values and providing proper prenatal care for children of illegal immigrants, several religious organizations said Monday.
Speakers representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Nebraska Catholic Conference and Omaha Together One Community said state lawmakers’ refusal to restore government-paid prenatal care was hypocritical in view of their verbal support for “Christian values.”
About 1,600 low-income women, including 840 here illegally, lost the preventive health care coverage March 1.
“I hear people talking about ‘Christian values’ but here, this issue is so plain and simple . . . it doesn’t match up,” said the Rev. Chuck Bentjen of Beatrice, Neb., a Lutheran minister involved in the church’s justice and advocacy ministry.
Bentjen said at a press conference that he and others were not trying to “shame” the governor and lawmakers into changing their minds but to remind them “what it means to be a person of faith.”
“The Scriptures are full of references to welcoming people within our midst,” he said, referring to immigrants.
Bentjen said the overriding purpose of Monday’s statements were to remind state leaders that the faith-based groups don’t plan to drop the issue and will push hard next year to restore the services.
The state dropped a more than 20-year-old practice of taxpayer-paid prenatal services for low-income women after the federal government told Nebraska it could no longer do so based on the eligibility of the unborn children. It had to be based on the eligibility of the mother.
Federal officials suggested a way Nebraska could restore the coverage, but the Legislature declined after Gov. Heineman stated his opposition to any taxpayer-paid services for illegal immigrants. Some lawmakers also feared political ramifications if they cast a pro-illegal immigrant vote during an election year.
The faith-based organizations said the decision not only reflected poorly on the values of the state, but will prove to be fiscally unwise. Proper prenatal care prevents birth defects, premature births and long-lasting special education costs, they said, that will cost taxpayers more in the long run because babies born in the U.S. automatically becomes citizens.
“This was about human needs and not about immigration policy,” said Jim Cunningham, who represents the Nebraska Catholic Conference, which lobbies for the state’s three Catholic dioceses.
The Catholic bishops wrote a letter to Heineman last month urging him to change his stance. They never received a response, Cunningham said, though the governor stated publicly he was not changing his opinion.
One speaker, Barbara Connell of the St. Pius X parish in Omaha, said her 31-year-old daughter, Heather Cardinale, was among those notified that her prenatal care was being cancelled.
But Cardinale was among about 4,700 women, all legal residents, deemed to still be eligible for services. She did not miss any prenatal visits, her mother said.
The Legislature has ordered a study of what becomes of the unborn children that lacked prenatal care and the cost to taxpayers because of increased delivery complications and birth defects.
Also Monday, the Legislature gave final-round approval to a bill that would restore prenatal services to women who lost it because they would not disclose the father of their babies for child support purposes, out of fear of domestic violence.
The bill would provide $100,000 in state funds, which would provide prenatal services for more than 100 women.
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