Denial of Prenatal Care to Illegals

Re “The Governor’s Brave Stand on Birth Defects,” Column Left, Nov. 5:

Robert Scheer repeatedly asserts the danger of prenatal care being denied to illegal women. He is missing the point. The government is not denying medical care; it is denying payment of care. In other words, if a pregnant, illegal woman walked into a doctor’s office and paid for the visit (or paid for medical insurance), she most certainly would be treated.

The rebuttal to this argument is that a poor immigrant woman cannot afford prenatal care. Which leads to my next point.

If people cannot afford prenatal visits, what makes them think they are financially able to raise a child? After the baby is born, it needs to be diapered, fed, clothed, vaccinated, taken to dental appointments. It will need to ride home from the hospital in a car seat. It needs a crib to sleep in. It needs blankets and shelter. Formula alone costs $100 a month.

My only grievance with the new welfare law is that it doesn’t go far enough. Instead of worrying about prenatal care for undocumented women, it should be concerned with birth control. An aggressive policy to allow people to voluntarily prevent pregnancies they cannot afford is the only real solution to this problem.

CATHERINE P. RHODES

Los Angeles

* Most of us don’t have the wisdom of Solomon; but in this day of family values, political leaders promoting moral integrity, organized religion entering political arenas, the right-to-life movement and commitment to reduce the deficit, it seems we could be smarter. Your Nov. 2 article (“Welfare Law Will Allow Wilson to Cut Immigrant Aid”) shows that we lack even the hint of morality, common sense or economic sense. Cutting off prenatal care to 70,000 Americans who are in the womb of their illegal immigrant mothers is proof of our shortcomings. I guess we could have fallen a bit lower; we could have refused to provide emergency medical care for the delivery. I’m sure we will save a fortune by this strategy. How many of these future U.S. citizen newborns will cost us extra because of complications due to poor prenatal care?

ALEX MORALES

Upland