ABSTRACT

The US-Mexico border region can be characterized by social contradictions: by islands of wealth situated in a sea of poverty, by a constant flow of people and trucks across the border side by side with some people who have never crossed (Eisele 1999), by newly arrived immigrants and long-established families. An additional contradiction is the intersection at the US-Mexico border of two very different health care paradigms, one system consisting of privatized medical care and the other socialized. Some Mexican women, in spite of having free access to health care in Mexico, seek medical services in the US. It is this final paradox that led me to question the factors that influence or hinder Mexican women’s decision to cross the border for prenatal care. I use this medical time frame because crossing the border to have babies who can then potentially become US citizens has been a recent source of contention in popular media, international politics, and scholarly debates (Brimelow 1995; Hinojosa and Schey 1995; Idelson 1995; Martinez 1995; Ocasio 1995; Skolnick 1995).