Judge Hears Arguments on Prenatal Care Cutoff

A Superior Court judge who will decide whether Gov. Pete Wilson can cut prenatal care next month for illegal immigrant women repeatedly asked the state’s lawyer Friday why Wilson was in such a rush.

“What’s the emergency?” San Francisco Judge William Cahill asked at a court hearing to determine whether the state can send out tens of thousands of termination notices next week.

Cahill pledged to decide “quickly” whether Wilson can proceed under an emergency regulation. State lawyers contend that Wilson is trying to obey a new federal law that overhauls welfare and calls for the elimination of such programs for illegal immigrants.

But public interest lawyers and recipients of state-funded prenatal services want Cahill to block Wilson on the grounds that no emergency exists.

If they succeed, Wilson will have to wait at least a few more months before he can eliminate the benefits under the normal regulatory process, which requires public comment. Other lawyers are preparing constitutional challenges of the new federal law.

At an hourlong hearing, Cahill noted that the welfare law does not specifically require states to move so hurriedly, nor is the federal government pressing the state to act. He pointed out that 17 states with similar programs are affected by the law, and “California is the only state that has gone this fast.”

Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. John H. Sugiyama told Cahill that the state was simply trying to follow the law, which became effective in August.

When jousting with lawyers for the recipients, Cahill tried to sum up their arguments. “I think what you are saying,” Cahill said, “is that there is political reason this has been chosen and it is inconsistent with everything that has happened before.”

A lawyer for the city of San Francisco, which also opposes the emergency notices, complained that the state’s proposed three-page emergency notices would confuse recipients and cause county offices to be inundated by callers.

“But if it is really an emergency, that is what happens,” said Cahill, who reminded lawyers that he must enforce the law regardless of his personal views.