Roundup: What's the Matter With Nebraska?

Roundup: What’s the Matter With Nebraska?

Mar 29, 2010, 10:07am

Robin Marty

Nebraska, forced birth for some, denial of prenatal care for others. Plus an HPV mini roundup.

It was a busy week in Nebraska, where anti-choice and pro-choice factions both butted heads and managed to find a little common ground.

Last week marked the final death of free prenatal care for the poorest of women in Nebraska. The funds, which originally came from Medicaid aid, were cut off in March due to being used on illegal immigrant women, despite the fact that the unborn children would be legal residents of the country.

Due to the governor’s threatened veto of any bill that would reinstate funding that might go to illegal immigrants, legislators have been searching for a solution that all parties would agree to.

A tentative plan to restore state-funded medical coverage to pregnant Nebraska women who are legal residents would cost between $2.7 million and $3 million annually.

State Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha released the figures on Friday.

He is one of a handful of senators trying to craft a legislative proposal to give state-and-federal funded medical coverage to some women. They recently lost coverage after the federal government forced the state to stop allowing unborn children to qualify for Medicaid. That had allowed women who didn’t qualify themselves for Medicaid — including illegal immigrants — to get Medicaid-covered care.

An earlier plan to restore state-funded prenatal care fell flat because it would have helped illegal immigrants.

Legislators opposing the plan are being asked to look at some startling facts about prenatal care, a stark reminder of what denying healthcare can do.

Senators were shocked by one statistic presented at the noon meeting: a 4 percent death rate during the first year of life for those babies whose mothers had no prenatal care at all.

The high death rate has many factors, including that mothers who don’t get prenatal care may be less likely to take their children to doctors after birth. But prenatal care does play a role, McVea said.

“It’s very, very clear that early and adequate prenatal care saves lives,” said McVea.

In the meantime, while Nebraska’s “pro-life” contingent is denying adequate medical care to the unborn, they are at the same time pushing more laws to force women who don’t want to have a child to be forced to have one anyway. Now, she has to prove she’s mentally and physically sound enough for an abortion.

A proposed bill that would require women seeking an abortion to first be screened got first-round approval Friday in the state legislature.

The measure would require a doctor to make sure the woman was not being pressured into having an abortion. The doctor would also check for mental and physical risk factors.

Of course, anti-choice legislators call this move “common sense practice,” and see no irony in pushing for women who don’t want to be pregnant to jump through hoops that might make them have to have children against their will while others who do want their children are denied medical care.

Opponents, led by Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, described the bill as unconstitutionally vague, impossible to comply with and an extreme departure from medical standards and ethics.

“This bill does nothing to improve women’s health and women’s lives,” Conrad said.

Some also talked of the contrast between concerns expressed for unborn babies through abortion legislation and failed attempts to restore prenatal care for some 1,500 women, including illegal immigrants.

“We’re already seeing women having abortions because they can’t afford prenatal care,” said Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm.

Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha predicted that lawmakers would pass two abortion-related bills this session but take no action to help poor, pregnant women.

“Their babies are going to die,” he said. The other proposal, Legislative Bill 1103, would ban late-term abortions.

In Nebraska, it appears to be better to give birth to an unwanted child than a healthy, wanted one.

Mini Roundup: Suddenly younger people are developing head and neck cancer. Here’s an easy fix to that.

March 26, 2010

Abortion bills pass Senate panel – Tulsa World

Social justice, abortion, distributism through the looking glass – American Conservative Magazine

Rep. Stupak: Speaker Pelosi had extra health care votes ‘in her pocket’ – Catholic News Agency

PolitiFact: Health care reform legislation does not expand funding for abortion – Media Matters for America

Conservative pro-life stand will kill women by the thousands – Toronto Star

Obama’s abortion deal reverses pro-choice campaign pledge – Raw Story

Abortion doctor’s killer to call witnesses at sentencing – Kansas City Star

Health care debate: A 16-month drama, with 8 key moments – Alexandria Town Talk

Georgia Senate Votes To Prevent Coercive Abortions – WCTV