One of my CNAs has a friend who recently arrived from Cameroon and found she is pregnant.* She is currently jobless and is seeking affordable prenatal care. I suggested Medicaid but is there a better path?
We have what is called a County Health Unit. They take most any patient, except the high risk ones. There’s another place they send those. They do birth control and prenatal care, vaccines, testing for HIV and Breast Cancer.
This is where WIC vouchers are applied for as well.
In AR it’s listed under the County name.
No cost as far as I know.
Is there a Planned Parenthood clinic in your area?
OK, before some people go apeshit and start sputtering about how the woman in question doesn’t want an abortion and how dare I suggest an abortion clinic, I’ll point out that PP provides a broad spectrum of women’s health services, including prenatal care. I don’t think they’re equipped to handle the delivery, but it’s a good bet that they can refer the woman to local services that can.
That reminds me that I’ve burnt thru enough of my savings to qualify for SNAP. Off to register!
Anny, I think we’ve frightened off the poorly informed. 
drop- I texted my friend who has 2 daughters with toddlers and babies in utero. She thinks the County Health Unit is a federally funded thing and are all over the country. She says they don’t require you to be a citizen but you must be here legally. So tell her to not go there if she’s illegal. They might call ICE or something. I’d feel bad if that happened.
It does matter greatly what state she’s in. The county hospitals in NYC have outreach clinics exactly for this scenario. But other municipalities are very much into punishing women for daring to get unsanctioned-ly pregnant. Especially if you are an immigrant. A brown, poor immigrant. But you know this, of course.
As Cameroon was French I assume she’s Catholic. Catholic Charities is ecumenical in its services and I bet the Sisters* would love to help.
Thanks for all y’all helping!
My friend is gone for the day so she can’t answer questions, but my friend lives here in Bensenville so I’m guessing her friend does too. For the sake of argument and subject to revision, let’s assume she is in Dupage County, Illinois.
Hey! I live in DuPage County!
Planned Parenthood has a clinic in Aurora. A quick read of their website didn’t tell me if they treat women who are undocumented, but you could call them and ask on her behalf.
Also, there’s an organization called DuPage Health Coalition that looks like they may be able to help. Their webpage is somewhat circumspect but they do say
It sounds like they would help her, but you could call first and sound them out. They are in Carol Stream, 630-510-8720.
Dupage Co. Health Dept.
Care providers are at Lombard and Westmont health centers.
They have a big web page with lots of services offered.
I got my introduction to Abilify at the Lombard office. “Doc, this stuff is great! I feel more able. How do I get more?”
"All I have are a few samples, but it’s just $1000/month. "
I was surprised he needed a reminder that I was unemployed and on Medicaid and that a grand was more than I got from Unemployment, much less that everybody who walked through that door was in the same boat. Probably working there as a condition of his parole.
In fact, I wish that someone had told my cohort about PP when we arrived to the US. Our employer-provided* medical care was… seriously lacking on the gynecological department.
If the woman in question is not interested in an abortion then Catholic Charities would be a reasonable place to go regardless of her religion. They will not, however, have anything to do with abortion.
Not necessarily; by that line of reasoning there would be practically no Muslims in Afri… oops…
Cameroon is 3:1 Christian to Muslim, and Wiki says it’s a localized form of Islam. I suspect that means a dollop of Animism.
Just remember that if she accepts one penny of government money she will be permanently barred from becoming a citizen, or at least until a Democrat becomes president and cancels that executive order. This includes Medicaid and SNAP. And unless she already has a green card, she will be ineligible for that too.