Sterilize Drug Addicts – and Pay Them?
Pay women who are drug addicts to be sterilized. Good or bad? What about if men can be sterilized (and paid) too? Would that make a difference? What if committing to long-term contraception was an option – how would you feel then?
Does this smack of preserving the ultimate race, keeping quality control of babies, or a smart thing to do? Well, regardless of how you feel about it, it’s already happening in the United States, thanks to Project Prevention.
Project Prevention’s mission statement:
Project Prevention offers cash incentives to women that are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to use long-term or permanent birth control.
Project Prevention is a national, 501 (C) 3 organization that has paid clients in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Our mission is to reduce the number of substance exposed births to zero.
Because every baby deserves a sober start!
The organization has been subject to many criticisms, from accusations of racism to social engineering and yet, it is still here and still receiving donations from people who believe in the cause.
According to an article that appeared last year in the LA Times, the organization, created and directed by Barbara Harris, pays 300.00 for a tubal ligation (sterilization). However, women may get an IUD and receive 75.00 when the device is inserted, another 100.00 when she goes for a 6-month check up, and an additional 125.00 at the end of each year the IUD is in place.
At first glance, it’s easy to look at it through different angles. Drug-addicted mothers who get pregnant often give birth to babies who are also addicted to drugs. The babies are often underweight and sickly. Many end up having medical needs that may not have been present had the child been born of a non-addicted mother. The economic cost of caring for such babies in the “system” is astronomical, but the social cost even more so. Many of these babies end up in a foster system that is ill-equipped to deal with them. The babies grow into older children and often end up being bounced from foster home to foster home, for a variety of reasons. The life can be a horrible one for many who aren’t lucky enough to end up in foster homes that love and nurture them as a child should be loved and nurtured.
By keeping the mothers from getting pregnant in the first place, these babies wouldn’t be born. But that brings the other argument. Who are we to say who should and shouldn’t be born? What if so many of the adults who make an enormous impact on the lives of others now weren’t born because someone else made the decision that their mother shouldn’t become pregnant?
The option does seem to be attractive to many women. According to the organization’s website, over 3,000 women have been paid for either sterilization or long-term birth control.
So, what do you think about it? Good idea? Bad idea?
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Image: iStock.com
Post from: Healthbolt