A recent press report has disturbing inplications for all concerned with the sanctity of human life.
The report described efforts by health officials in California to pay crack cocaine-addicted women to undergo sterilizations. According to the report, the program is a privately run enterprise involving Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The program is known by the provocative name CRACK (Children Requiring a Caring Community).
Both Planned Parenthood and the civil liberties unionbelieve that cash in exchange for sterilization will allow drug users to avoid life-long problems associated with pregnancy and childrearing.
Some ACLU officials, however, are troubled by the voluntary component of a program offering cash incentives.
The program offers $200 for a tubal ligation, or a five-year contraceptive implant known as Norplant. Male drug users are offered a vasectomy.
The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that the state’s first CRACK centre in Anaheim has to date raised up to $35,000 for its operations, the majority of that amount coming from out-of-state businessmen who have requested anonymity.
Surprisingly, conservative radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger is reported to have contributed $5,000 toward the effort. She is usually seen as having a more traditional stance.
CRACK founder Barbara Harris summed up the pro-sterilization position as follows: “Which is worse — the fact that women make a decision to use birth control on drugs, or the fact that they are allowed to continue to give birth to drug (-addicted) babies?”
