Study Foresees Disease Risk in Welfare Cuts

The Wilson administration’s plan to cut off subsidized prenatal care for illegal immigrants will result in an increased incidence of sexually transmitted disease, endangering tens of thousands of mothers, their children and their partners, according to a Los Angeles County study released Wednesday.

“Prenatal care is critical for communicable disease control in pregnant women,” said Dr. Gary A. Richwald, chief physician of the county program to reduce sexually transmitted ailments and a co-author of the report.

Screening for such ailments--including gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV / AIDS--is standard during pregnancy, physicians note, and is often the only such examinations that many poor women ever receive.

In addition, health professionals predicted more deaths and illness among mothers and their offspring--along with greater public care costs--as pregnant women avoid doctor visits until forced to call for help and go to emergency rooms.

“The prenatal care of choice is going to be 911,” Richwald said.

The county study is the latest salvo by health professionals against the governor’s plan to cut prenatal care as part of the implementation of the new federal welfare overhaul. The California Medical Assn. and other health groups have condemned the governor’s plan.

Gov. Pete Wilson does not dispute the health benefits of prenatal care. But he has said that California taxpayers cannot afford the $70-million yearly tab for providing the aid to about 69,000 illegal immigrants statewide.

“Those who are in this country illegally should return to their country of origin to receive medical attention,” said Sean Walsh, a Wilson spokesman.

Meanwhile, California authorities agreed Wednesday to at least a nine-day delay in plans to notify beneficiaries and care providers statewide about the impending state cutoff of subsidized prenatal care for illegal immigrants.

With that assurance, Judge William Cahill in San Francisco Superior Court ruled there was no need for a formal order blocking the state from beginning notification procedures. Another hearing on the issue is set Nov. 22.

Anti-poverty lawyers, joined by the city and county of San Francisco, are challenging the Wilson administration’s use of fast-track, emergency regulations to remove illegal immigrants from the state Medi-Cal rolls by Dec. 1.

“A governor is supposed to declare an emergency, not create one,” said Robert Newman, staff attorney at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, who voiced fears that cutoff notices could prompt women to avoid seeking care.