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are here illegally," said Rep. Gary Cammack, a Republican from Union Center.
• Daugaard's staff said that in the fiscal year that ended in June, 195 immigrant women gave birth in the state. Of those, 11 babies needed $160,000 in care from a neo-natal intensive care unit. The prior year, 10 babies in that category needed intensive care, costing $313,000. Those costs were split between state and federal funds. In some cases, hospitals simply write off these visits as bad debt.
• Supporters of the prenatal care measure estimate the preventative services will cost nearly $247,000 annually, shared between federal and state governments. During prenatal visits, physicians monitor the baby's heart rate, estimate the mother's due date and check her blood pressure, among other things.
• Babies of mothers who do not get prenatal care are three times more likely to have low birth weight and five times more likely to die than those born to mothers who do get care. Lack of prenatal care can also lead to children being born early and needing to stay in a neo-natal intensive care unit for weeks, which hospitals say can cost about $60,000.
• If South Dakota passed the measure it would join at least 16 states -- including neighboring Nebraska and some with huge immigrant populations such as Texas and Illinois -- in offering offer some medical coverage to pregnant women regardless of their immigration status, according to data collected by the National Immigration Law Center.
• Nebraska, which passed the measure in 2012, estimates it has provided care to over 650 women a month since it started, at a cost of $9.4 million shared between the state and federal government.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A federal judge has heard arguments in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widow of a South Dakota State Penitentiary guard slain by inmates three years ago.
• U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol on Wednesday heard from the attorneys of Lynette Johnson. She alleges that lackadaisical behavior by state prison officials enabled Rodney Berget and Eric Robert to kill her husband during a failed escape attempt in 2011.
• The Department of Corrections told Piersol that the suit fails to show that Ronald Johnson's safety was disregarded. The state has asked Piersol to dismiss the lawsuit.
• Both Berget and Robert were sentenced to death for the killing of Johnson. Robert was executed in 2012. Berget remains on death row.

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