Alternate headline option: “Governor Vetoes Pro-Baby Bill As Promised”

Here’s the story, a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the same topic:

Gov. Dave Heineman was in Grand Island earlier talking about why he vetoed the bill allowing cities to raise their sales tax rates with a vote of the people.

Late Friday, Heineman vetoed a bill that would restore prenatal care to low-income women, including illegal immigrants.

Across the state, lawmakers held news conferences at hospitals explaining why they voted in favor of the prenatal bill.

They said that care would prevent babies from being born prematurely or with other complications.

“But what about the baby of that illegal immigrant that’s going to be born a citizen, who, with bad prenatal care or no prenatal care, may end up the ward of the state for the rest of their life?” asked Sen. Mike Gloor.

Nebraskans — who are generally a staunchly pro-life bunch — seem to agree with the Governor, or at least the 700+ who have voted in this unscientific online poll:

I wonder how people would have voted if the poll had asked the question a bit more honestly: “Should babies whose mothers are in this country without proper documentation — and who will be American citizens when they’re born — get state-funded care while in utero?”

Frankly, this seems like the easiest and most obvious thing to support. You don’t like undocumented immigrants? Fine. I get that. But the fetuses that you typically love so much? What’s your problem with them?

You know, perhaps the wording in the poll doesn’t matter. Perhaps all that really matters is the race of the babies and mothers in question. Perhaps …

I just can’t stand the naked hypocrisy. And when it’s so obviously coupled with blatant racism … well … then at least the hypocrisy isn’t the worst part.