I’m Canadian. And I’m already sorry for asking an ignorant question.
I know you have to pay for hospital visits in the states. I know lower economic status can come with lower access to birth control and sex education. But then, how do they afford to give birth? Do people ever avoid hospital visits because they don’t feel like they can’t afford it?
Do hospitals put people on a payment plan? Is it possible to give birth and not pay if you don’t have the means? How does it work in the states?
How does it all work?
Again. Canadian. And sorry.
Might want to take a look at this then.
And this.
And this too.
EDITED TO ADD: While court cases involving “debtors prison” exist, NONE of them have “made debtors prison a thing of the past” in the US because imprisonment for private debt is very much alive and well today in 2023. Given that a person imprisoned over debt is unlikely to sue unless an organization such as ACLU takes on the case, and even more unlikely to win in courts that are dominated by commercial interests and partisan judges, it’s only going to get worse, not better. Going by the above linked articles that is exactly how it’s working out right now. Trying to prove that this horrific problem of criminalizing poverty does not exist today by pointing to a single 1983 lawsuit and going, “See! I told you!” is just completely privileged assholery.