Is it right or wrong to provide prenatal care for illegal immigrants?

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WildCatholic

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Okay so in my home state of Nebraska. Our legislature, which is heavily republican, recently reinstated public prenatal care for illegal immigrants. This effort was not only lead by liberals, but a number of conservative Catholics who felt it was not very pro life to do this. Anyway, our Governor vetoed this bill (though it was eventually passed if I remember correctly) in spite of his being very pro life, and felt that the government shouldn’t pay for illegals prenatal care.

However, the main sponsor of reinstating these benefits, who is not only a strong abortion opponent but a devout Catholic and conservative, mentioned how he felt that the government needed to support this because of his pro life views.

So is it wrong for a government to provide prenatal care for illegal immigrants? I know this probably is morally ambiguous, but it seems as if this legislator is using his Catholic beliefs to justify it, and he is hardly a social justice type.

Anyway, for more info heres an article. I know the source is biased, but its all i could find

npr.org/blogs/health/2012/04/18/150839788/unusual-alliances-form-in-nebraskas-prenatal-care-debate
 
I think it is wrong to be in a country illegally and then ask that country to pay for your medical care. I think it is wrong to not do what is necessary to morally avoid a pregnancy when one is in such a dire situation.

However, someone’s wrongdoing cannot compel us to abandon all sense of responsibility for our fellow human beings, and urgent medical situations should be addressed if there is no time for a deportation.
 
WildCatholic said:
Okay so in my home state of Nebraska. Our legislature, which is heavily republican, recently reinstated public prenatal care for illegal immigrants. This effort was not only lead by liberals, but a number of conservative Catholics who felt it was not very pro life to do this. Anyway, our Governor vetoed this bill (though it was eventually passed if I remember correctly) in spite of his being very pro life, and felt that the government shouldn’t pay for illegals prenatal care.

However, the main sponsor of reinstating these benefits, who is not only a strong abortion opponent but a devout Catholic and conservative, mentioned how he felt that the government needed to support this because of his pro life views.

So is it wrong for a government to provide prenatal care for illegal immigrants? I know this probably is morally ambiguous, but it seems as if this legislator is using his Catholic beliefs to justify it, and he is hardly a social justice type.

Anyway, for more info heres an article. I know the source is biased, but its all i could find

npr.org/blogs/health/2012/04/18/150839788/unusual-alliances-form-in-nebraskas-prenatal-care-debate
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The source probably is biased. What’s interesting about NPR in Minneapolis was they were very much in favor mass-transit-----that is, until the city needed to tear up most of the road in front of their building to build it! :eek::rolleyes:

Constitutionally, it’s up to the state to decide what pre-natal care undocumented folks get.

I’m not sure how to say if this is right or wrong in the moral sense, though.

You can say that it is generous.

I just think that all of this is better run in the free market and that if the federal government had the right incentive, we wouldn’t have as big of an immigration issue.

It would seem the “conservative Catholics” as you describe are trying to do what is right. Because the democrat party in certain circles seems to want a permanent underclass so they can get votes to stay in power, I am more suspicious of their motives.
 
I think that it is right to provide care to someone who needs it, but wrong to insist that it be paid for by the state government. There is such a teaching as subsidiarity, and there is no reason to believe that the government should provide for everything. There are charities and churches that minister to people in need that have no government affiliation.

Morally, someone who has broken a (just) law and is in a country illegally has more to worry about than someone legally in the country providing care. 🤷
 
JackieMom said:
I think it is wrong to be in a country illegally and then ask that country to pay for your medical care. I think it is wrong to not do what is necessary to morally avoid a pregnancy when one is in such a dire situation.

However, someone’s wrongdoing cannot compel us to abandon all sense of responsibility for our fellow human beings, and urgent medical situations should be addressed if there is no time for a deportation.
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This.
 
You’ll find the Churches guidance on this in her Compendium of Social Doctrine.

I haven’t had time to read it, but the old testament makes it clear that we are to treat immigrants with respect.
Wealthier countries have a duty to welcome those from countries unable to support them

There is a clear human right to access to health care.

The unborn child is not guilty of their parents sins or crimes, but is a precious innocent human being and due every respect and all their Human Rights. It is gravely wrong to harm or allow harm to come to a baby or unborn child because you dislike something about their mother.

If pre-natal care is widely subsidised for others, then it should not be denied to the migrants whether legal or otherwise.
 
The document also says: “The Magisterium underlines the contradiction inherent in affirming rights without acknowledging corresponding responsibilities. “Those, therefore, who claim their own rights, yet altogether forget or neglect to carry out their respective duties, are people who build with one hand and destroy with the other”.”

I agree that the child is sinless in this, as he/she cannot choose his/her parents or control their actions, but surely the migrant has a duty to follow the law of the country they wish to enter.
 
Thanks for the responses. I guess I feel that I stand with Senator Flood (the state senator mentioned in the article). I feel that if illegal immigrants are here, why not give them prenatal care to children who will be American citizens. Same thing goes for kids who were born to illegals here, or moved here with their parents. I’m not for free healthcare, but I do think they should get the same benefits as other kids.

I guess the other reason i’m against it is that with some people (definitely not most though) its thinly veiled racism. I understand people don’t want others taking our money when they aren’t entitled to it, but i doubt there are a lot of leeches crossing the border. To me the leeches are those who live in this country and don’t do jack and sit on welfare. I’m a lot more lenient on immigrants, especially those who want to stay.
 
To deny a woman and her baby prenatal care is wrong. period. fullstop.
 
WildCatholic said:
Thanks for the responses. I guess I feel that I stand with Senator Flood (the state senator mentioned in the article). I feel that if illegal immigrants are here, why not give them prenatal care to children who will be American citizens. Same thing goes for kids who were born to illegals here, or moved here with their parents. I’m not for free healthcare, but I do think they should get the same benefits as other kids.

I guess the other reason i’m against it is that with some people (definitely not most though) its thinly veiled racism. I understand people don’t want others taking our money when they aren’t entitled to it, but i doubt there are a lot of leeches crossing the border. To me the leeches are those who live in this country and don’t do jack and sit on welfare. I’m a lot more lenient on immigrants, especially those who want to stay.
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I live in So. California in an ag community. Believe me - loads illegal immigrants have zero problem taking every possible government freebie, including free groceries, EBT cards, free cell phones, subsidized housing, free education (complete with free breakfast and lunch), free medical care, free babysitting, free English lessons, reduced-cost utilities, etc. California is absolutely drowning under the cost of supporting them in combination with our own people.
 
JackieMom said:
I live in So. California in an ag community. Believe me - loads illegal immigrants have zero problem taking every possible government freebie, including free groceries, EBT cards, free cell phones, subsidized housing, free education (complete with free breakfast and lunch), free medical care, free babysitting, free English lessons, reduced-cost utilities, etc. California is absolutely drowning under the cost of supporting them in combination with our own people.
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Poor people in America who are struggling to make ends meet generally have no problem getting help from others regardless of if they were born here to American citizens, immigrated here legally or came here illegally.

California actually will have a budget surplus (insane I know) if they approve Governor Moonbeams’s budget
 
Dakota_Roberts said:
Poor people in America who are struggling to make ends meet generally have no problem getting help from others regardless of if they were born here to AMerican citizens, immigrated here legally or came here illegally.

California actually will have a budget surplus (insane I know) if they approve Governor Moonbeams’s budget
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Maybe. But Amercans are “entitled” to aid. It is true that the gravity of accepting welfare, and the corresponding desire to get off of it asap, has all but been erased in some communities.
 
bitznbitez said:
To deny a woman and her baby prenatal care is wrong. period. fullstop.
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To deny anyone necessary medical care is wrong, BUT the question was should the GOVERNMENT provide it. That is where the debate is occuring. I highly doubt even the hardest of hearted politicians would agree that barring a woman from prenatal care because she is an illegal immigrant is ok. But whether or not the taxpayer (generally an American citizen) should foot the bill is up for debate.
 
this is the way I thought about it: b**etter to provide them with prenatal care than for them to end up at planned baby butchering (and possibly get injured or WORSE). **
 
I think it is wrong that an illegal alien should bring a child into the world that they don’t have the ability to care for. When the state steps in to provide care I believe the state should not take half measures.
 
JackieMom said:
I live in So. California in an ag community. Believe me - loads illegal immigrants have zero problem taking every possible government freebie, including free groceries, EBT cards, free cell phones, subsidized housing, free education (complete with free breakfast and lunch), free medical care, free babysitting, free English lessons, reduced-cost utilities, etc. California is absolutely drowning under the cost of supporting them in combination with our own people.
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Funny, I live in SoCal and it seems like most of the people doing this stuff are at LEAST second generation.
All of the illegal immigrants I know are hardworking and fleeing from deplorable conditions. Despite what people seem to think, it’s not that easy to legally enter the US. I have an aunt in Mexico who literally has a cartel demand out for her head and is in hiding. She’s college educated and has been saving up for 15 years (with money we send her, when we know where she is) to get her paperwork sorted. It’ll probably be another decade before she can come to the US.

However, this question isn’t about illegal immigration. It’s a question over whether anybody, anywhere, should deny an innocent child lifesaving help. If you saw a toddler in the middle of a busy street, you’d be morally obligated to help, whether it was your own child or a stranger. Do only the children of citizens deserve to live? Do they not share the dignity of being in the image and likeness of God because of what their parents did? Are we only obligated to care about people that are part of our own group?
 
SamH said:
I think it is wrong that an illegal alien should bring a child into the world that they don’t have the ability to care for. When the state steps in to provide care I believe the state should not take half measures.
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So, they should abort the child? Just like a woman who doesn’t have the “ability to care for” a disabled child?
 
jediliz said:
this is the way I thought about it: b**etter to provide them with prenatal care than for them to end up at planned baby butchering (and possibly get injured or WORSE). **
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EXACTLY. I don’t know why we think of these people as not being people. They have souls. They’re already here (nobody is coming just to get free labor care). Labor has actively begun (not the time to deal with possibly deporting them or whatever). Either you turn them away and the baby could suffer, or they take it to heart and you’ve driven them to hurting their souls by contracepting or aborting (which is what “they shouldn’t be having kids” implies).
 
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