Legislation to Expand Prenatal Care Coverage Passes House of Representatives

A bill that provides prenatal care to unborn babies despite their mothers’ citizenship status passes the House of Representatives Monday. Supporters of the legislation say it’s a pro-life bill, and doesn’t take a stance on the immigration debate. But opponents say it could make South Dakota a safe-haven for illegal immigrants.
 
House Bill 1158 seeks to create a prenatal care program that provides medical services and screenings to unborn babies. It asks the Department of Social Services to develop a waiver through Medicaid and Medicare to provide these services. Supporters say because when these babies are born they are U.S. citizens, the state should provide preventative services to decrease potential healthcare costs. Representative Bernie Hunhoff supports the legislation.
 
“South Dakota should’ve been the first state to ask for this waiver because as you know, we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. Governor Daugaard, and Linda Daugaard, and others in the administration have tackled that—they’ve created a task force on infant mortality. The number one recommendation is to improve access to early comprehensive prenatal care. The report didn’t suggest that they should only improve access to early comprehensive prenatal care for these unborn South Dakotans because they’re a certain race, or color, or gender or anything else. It just said this is the way to do it,” Hunhoff says.
 
Three amendments were proposed to House Bill 1158 as it was debated on the House floor. Only one was accepted. One of the failed amendments completely gutted House Bill 1158. Representative Lance Russell’s proposed amendment removes providing prenatal care, to calling on hospitals and clinics to report suspected illegal immigrants to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He calls it a hostile amendment in terms of what the bill’s original sponsor sought to accomplish, but says his intention is to protect South Dakotans.
 
“What we are doing by providing the care to these folks, is we are encouraging people to relocate here. Under this amendment, there would no longer be any encouragement of people to relocate here for the purpose of obtaining citizenship through their children,” Russell says.
 
Russell says the financial ramifications of illegal immigrants moving to the state to have a baby would be long lasting. Opponents to the amendment say preventing the unborn and sick from receiving healthcare is the last place the state should put a squeeze on immigration. It was also questioned whether this potentially leads to hospitals turning in patients suspected of illegal drug use.
 
The sole approved amendment offered by Representative Mark Mickelson requests an annual financial impact statement from the Department of Social Services. House Bill 1158 as amended passed 46 to 22. The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.