Would this new restriction impact pregnant women with genuine medical needs? It will come down to how individual counselors enforce it
The Trump administration issued a new rule on Thursday instructing United States consular officials to deny pregnant women visas unless they can prove “to the satisfaction of the consular officer” either that they are not traveling to the U.S. to give birth, or that they have a legitimate medical reason to give birth in the country.
If a consular officer believes the visa applicant could receive similar treatment in her home country, or in a country that’s geographically closer to the U.S., he or she may deny the woman’s application. If that happens, the woman can’t appeal the decision, explains Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who was the primary drafter of the Senate’s immigration reform bill in 2013.
The new rule instructs consular officers to deny a visa to any pregnant woman seeking to give birth in the U.S. unless she can overcome a burden of proof. She must convince a consular officer that she has a legitimate medical need to give birth in the U.S. and that she cannot receive that care near her home country.
Traveling to the U.S. for the explicit purpose of giving birth was not previously banned, Canzater adds. In fact, “for the purpose of giving birth” was sometimes included in women’s visa applications. “Birth tourism” is most common among women from Russia, China and Nigeria and has become a sort of “industry” in recent years, especially among the wealthy, according to Canzater.
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