Texas hospital investigated over billboards for Mexican mothers
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear its June ruling that his executive order restricting birthright citizenship violates the 14th Amendment, based on what he described as “shocking new evidence” of a Texas hospital advertising to Mexican women.
Posting on his social media platform, Trump wrote: “Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’.” He claimed the justices “will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”
The president’s post followed a Fox News report about a single hospital, Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, Texas, about five miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The hospital had placed two Spanish-language billboards in Reynosa, Mexico, advertising “delivery packages” and also promoted its maternity services on social media. A Fox News report confirmed the hospital’s marketing.
The image of one billboard was posted on social media in April by Mayra Flores, a former Republican congresswoman from Texas who was born in Mexico and is running for a return to Congress. Flores did not initially claim the billboard was inviting Mexicans to give birth in the U.S. to obtain citizenship, but expressed outrage that the prices — $3,950 for a natural birth and $5,525 for a caesarean section — were far lower than typical costs for American citizens. She offered no proof that those prices were available only to foreign citizens.
Facing backlash from Trump supporters, Mission Regional Medical Center said in a statement that the billboards and a Spanish-language website are “no longer in use due to any unintended misunderstanding.” The hospital also deleted an Instagram post in Spanish that invited women “living abroad” to welcome a baby in South Texas, with no mention of citizenship. The hospital, a public nonprofit, said it “does not support or facilitate any unlawful activity” and intends to cooperate with local and state officials.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered an investigation of the hospital, accusing it of promoting “birth tourism.”
The Supreme Court last month rejected Trump’s executive order, ruling that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which confers citizenship to those born in the U.S. who are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” prohibits the president from unilaterally ending birthright citizenship. The court rarely grants petitions for rehearing and has not done so after issuing a merits ruling in an argued case in decades.