Judge Blocks State Cutoff of Prenatal Care

A Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday preventing Gov. Pete Wilson from cutting off prenatal care next month for illegal immigrants.

Wilson, declaring an emergency situation, had planned imminent implementation of a new federal welfare law that eliminates such benefits.

But Judge William Cahill held that Wilson cannot proceed under an emergency regulation because state officials have failed to show that an emergency exists. Without such a measure, Wilson must wait several more months to end the benefits under normal regulatory process, which requires public comment.

“This decision is totally erroneous, takes California out of compliance with federal law, will cost California taxpayers approximately $25 million to $35 million and will be appealed,” said Wilson, referring to the amount the state may spend until final regulations are in place.

State officials have said new regulations could take as little as 120 days, but a spokesperson for Wilson said Tuesday that the regulations will not be ready for another five to seven months.

Wilson’s emergency measure directed state officials to mail out tens of thousands of notices within the next few days to illegal immigrants who received state-funded prenatal care. Those who applied for such benefits would have been denied them beginning Dec. 1, and current recipients would have lost them as of Jan. 1.

Lawyers for the state had argued that Wilson was simply obeying the federal welfare law that took effect in August.

But Cahill ruled that the “mere enactment of a federal law does not automatically create an emergency here in California.” He said state officials “presented no reason” why the new federal law “suddenly presented California with a crisis of such a magnitude that public input should be barred from the rule-making process.”

Advocates for recipients of the state aid had warned that Wilson’s plan would result in confusion and inundate county welfare offices with telephone calls.

By forcing the state to adhere to the normal regulatory process, opponents have time to help shape the new regulations, mount a challenge of the federal law and lobby the state Legislature to pass a new law to save the program.

“A lot is going to happen” before new regulations are issued, said Lucy Quacinella, a lawyer with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, one of the groups that sought the injunction. “There is no doubt about that. The real question is, ‘What is in the regulations and are they consistent with all applicable laws?’ ”

Pregnant illegal immigrants will still be eligible for emergency care and for treatment of communicable diseases under the new federal law. Advocates for the poor contend that care of these women will simply move into the emergency room, costing the state more than if preventive care had been given.

Robert Newman, another lawyer with the Western Center, said Wilson’s emergency regulation was vague. For example, he said, it was unclear whether a pregnant woman who had high blood pressure would have been eligible for care as an emergency case.

“Will a woman in this situation be covered or not?” he said. Waiting for the normal regulatory process “makes all the difference in the world.”

Pregnant illegal immigrants have received state-financed checkups, nutritional supplements and fetal monitoring under a program approved by the state Legislature in 1988. Wilson has estimated that the program costs the state $5 million a month.

The medical community has strongly supported the program because it reduces the likelihood that the children will be born with serious health problems and require costly care at taxpayers’ expense.

The cutoff is expected to hit hard in Los Angeles County, which has the nation’s largest concentration of illegal immigrants. County hospitals and clinics that have received state reimbursements for such care estimate its cost at about $9 million per year. It is not yet known whether the county will pick up the cost once the state steps out.

Some immigrants will be exempt from the cutoff, including those who are considered refugees or who have been granted asylum or who have been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States.

* EARLY PRENATAL CARE: Women are getting the message about getting care early. E3