The way we dehumanize undocumented immigrants is frightening. How could people deny prenatal health care for women who are poor but undocumented? Who could do that?
The governor of Nebraska, for one. He is quoted in an editorial in the New York Times today saying: “Providing preferential treatment to illegals while increasing taxes on legal Nebraska citizens is misguided, misplaced and inappropriate.” Note two things. First, whenever a person in Nebraska buys something, he or she pays sales tax, whether or not he or she is a citizen. Second, see how the governor dehumanizes these women. They are not pregnant women, they are “illegals.”
Now the amazing part. A coalition including the National Right to Life, Planned Parenthood, and the Nebraska Catholic Conference, pushed the legislature to override the governor’s veto. The bill, now law, says: “The Legislature finds that unborn children do not have immigration status and therefore are not within the scope” of the Nebraska law that denies health care to people here illegally.
You have to admit, that is pretty slick.
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