PIERRE — South Dakota’s House of Representatives approved a proposal Friday that provides prenatal care for illegal immigrants, but not before engaging in a debate that pitted different conservative tenets against each other.
Republican supporters said the measure is “pro-life,” and that it was worth providing important care for unborn children even if their parents happened to be illegal immigrants.
But other Republicans objected, saying the benefit to the infants was outweighed by concerns about encouraging illegal immigration and by the cost to taxpayers of providing that care.