Undocumented & Female

By: Nichole Davari | 2021 Board of Directors, Vice President

I write this on the eve of International Women’s Day, a Sunday evening personally full of “Sunday Scaries” brought on by a busy upcoming work week. If you haven’t heard, the pandemic has been quite tough on working women. Tonight, as an act of self-care and maybe a bit of desperation for understanding, I reflect on what it means to be a woman, or shall I say womxn? 

Being a woman is much more than physical attributes or body parts, but the disparities in women’s healthcare among non-U.S. citizen, low-income, immigrant women versus their U.S citizen counterparts are worth talking about. Planned Parenthood tells us that about 60% of non-U.S. citizen, low-income immigrant women of reproductive age lack health insurance, which is more than twice the proportion of low-income U.S.-born women. Because many immigrant women can’t access health coverage, they are less likely than other U.S. women to access preventive health care such as STD screenings and birth control, which leads us to this unfortunate truth: half of all pregnancies among Latina women are unintended. 

Millions of women face institutional barriers to obtaining health coverage and care, but the women I’m speaking of also have their immigration status as an additional hurdle to overcome. 

The current conversation about immigration reform largely fails to recognize the contributions that immigrant women make to their families, communities, and our nation’s economy. Immigrants are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that in the pandemic have now been called “essential,” but it is these same jobs that are unlikely to offer employer-sponsored health coverage -- another unfortunate truth. 

Being an immigrant woman, with documentation or not, is a hard enough role. From learning a new language to adapting to a new culture all while providing for yourself and family both in home and heart, physical health care should not be the root of any concern. Often when people migrate they are looking for something safer. Let the American healthcare system be that.