“Immigrants Are Bearing the Burden of These Cuts”

Check out Olympia Newswire writer Carina del Rosario's excellent piece on OneAmerica's legislative day and the affects of medical interpretation cuts on immigrant communities:

“Immigrants Are Bearing the Burden of These Cuts”

by Carina del Rosario, Olympia Newswire

For 14 years, Manuela Zepeda didn’t know she could not have children. In 1976, she went to a Portland clinic and, with no medical interpreter, she explained in Spanish that she had stomach pain. The doctors operated then sent her home.

“I had appendicitis, so they took that out, but they also took out my uterus – without my consent,” Zepeda said through tears. She did not know about the hysterectomy until 2000 when she went to another clinic, where she was provided a trained medical interpreter. “When I found out, I was so depressed. I kept crying and crying.”

Zepeda came from her home in Burlington to Olympia to tell elected officials to restore funding for medical interpreter services and other language access programs. She was one of nearly 200 immigrants who came to Olympia on Tuesday, January 26, as part of “Immigrants’ Day at the Capitol”, which was sponsored by OneAmerica. They came to advocate for language access, citizenship programs and progressive tax reform so services for all low-income people could be maintained.

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