Program Pays Drug Addicts to Take Birth Control or Undergo Sterilization

June 27, 2008

Program Pays Drug Addicts to Take Birth Control or Undergo Sterilization

A controversial program rewards drug users for accepting temporary or permanent birth control, reports The Daily Sentinel, in Colorado.

To qualify for the Project Prevention program, women must prove that they use drugs by presenting an arresting document, a statement from a rehabilitation clinic, or another official form. The clinic gives the women $300 and either Depo-Provera, Norplant, or Implanon. Men and women who elect to undergo sterilization, through vasectomy or tubal ligation, must be sober to make the decision. Altogether, about 2,500 women have been paid to use birth control, the newspaper reports.

Other groups argue that paying drug addicts only enables them to buy more drugs and that sterilizing substance abusers amounts to racial discrimination. But health officials in Colorado and Barbara Harris, who runs Project Prevention, point to the health problems suffered by children of addicts.

“I believe with all my heart that I’m preventing a tragedy,” says Ms. Harris.

Comments

This is the most ridiculous plan I have ever heard of. Being a child of a drug addict, I have no health problems and am very happy that my mother was not bribed to take birth control.

— Nicole Jun 27, 12:27 PM #
I am not against the program, yet what I am against is someone saying that it is a racial issue. If you find that there is a disproportional amount of drug users from one race, then it is evident that something else needs to be done to alleviate the real problem, drug use.

— Mona Jun 27, 01:02 PM #
I agree with Mona. Sterilization is not an answer to drug use, violence/neglect to children, or anything else besides pregnancy. They are offering these people no help with their real issues; drug abuse. What is their remedy if they already have children, euthanasia?

— Felicia Jun 27, 02:10 PM #
Ms Harris is practicing what minority groups were screaming about in the 1970s. Genocide. Drug use has been available since the 800s. The Chinese protested drug use in the 1800s when the British, French, and United States needed a way to recoup their financial losses. Some prejudiced soul will fund her no doubt.

— doris scott Jun 27, 03:14 PM #
Addicts need treatment, not sterilization.

This kind of stuff has been going on for centuries. The Supreme Court ruled in the infamous case Buck v. Bell that castrating the mentally ill was justifiable, when the esteemed Oliver Wendell Holmes declared “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

It’s beyond racism. It’s preying on the poor and vulnerable (who often, but not always, turn out to be people of color) with the goal of “protecting society”, not helping the people who desperately need help. This type of birth control/sterilization/eugenics/social engineering has been practiced on people with disabilities and people of color for centuries, through official programs and unofficial ones like this that get a wink and a nod from the authorities. Ms. Harris may not even realize what she’s doing, but it’s definitely social engineering, whether or not she knows it. She’s the latest in a long and sordid history.

If she really cares about these people, she should take her money and put it into treatment programs. I’m willing to bet Mesa County, like most communities, is desperately low on beds and treatment centers for alcoholics and drug addicts.

— Sky Bluesky Jun 30, 01:14 PM #
I’m glad there are so many people who have opinions (perhaps even somewhat informed) about what other people should be doing.

I commend Ms. Harris for trying to meet a very painful and complicated situation that has neiter good answers and nor proven solutions.

It would be nice to comment on the actions of others without assuming (and condemning) their motives.

— indolawson Jul 1, 02:43 PM #

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