Hispanic Woman Sues California Over Race-Based Exclusion From Black Infant Health Program
*A Hispanic woman from Pasadena is taking California to federal court, arguing the state unlawfully denied her access to maternal health services based solely on her race. According to The Black Chronicle , Erica Jimenez filed the lawsuit on April 2 in Los Angeles federal court, naming the California Department of Public Health and its director, […] The post Hispanic Woman Sues California Over Race-Based Exclusion From Black Infant Health Program appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
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*A Hispanic woman from Pasadena is taking California to federal court, arguing the state unlawfully denied her access to maternal health services based solely on her race.
According to The Black Chronicle , Erica Jimenez filed the lawsuit on April 2 in Los Angeles federal court, naming the California Department of Public Health and its director, Dr. Erica Pan, along with L.A. County and Pasadena public health departments and their respective directors as defendants.
Jimenez, who welcomed her first child in March 2026 at age 33, had sought enrollment in the state’s Black Infant Health (BIH) program through the Pasadena Public Health Department prior to her delivery. The program provides expectant and new mothers with support services covering health guidance, medical referrals, and family resources. A program administrator contacted her and confirmed she did not qualify because neither she nor her newborn were Black/African American.
“The consequences were immediate,” the complaint stated. “Mrs. Jimenez was denied publicly funded services for healthy pregnancies and early childhood development — services available to others solely because they fit the government’s preferred race. Mrs. Jimenez’s race alone closed the door.”
Established in 1989 to respond to disproportionate rates of infant death and health complications among Black newborns in California, the BIH program sets no income thresholds for eligibility. The suit charges the program with violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and federal civil rights statutes that prohibit race-based exclusion in programs receiving federal dollars.
“Our civil rights laws forbid this: Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funding from excluding individuals on the basis of race. And basic principles of human dignity forbid it: motherhood should not begin with unequal treatment based on race,” the complaint said.
Jimenez is represented by attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit constitutional advocacy organization. PLF attorney Andrew Quinio framed the case in stark terms. “California’s program treats race as a stand-in for need — assuming that only mothers of one race deserve or require the help this program offers,” he said. “Drawing a line around a public benefit program and saying only certain races may enter is precisely the kind of discrimination the Equal Protection Clause prohibits.”
Plaintiffs are pursuing class action status and a statewide injunction against the program’s racially restrictive eligibility rules. Only nominal damages and attorney fees are being sought, and the state has not yet entered a response.
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The post Hispanic Woman Sues California Over Race-Based Exclusion From Black Infant Health Program appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
