Robot Heart: Sex, Religion, and Politics

Organization Pays Addicted Women to Undergo Permanent Sterilization

anthropophagous:

The organization pays women who are drug addicts or alcoholics a one time amount of $300 to get permanent birth control. [via

I was hoping this was going to be about C.R.A.C.K. but I guess we are still pushing forward on this great and totally non racist/misogynist/classist/otherwise discriminatory plan.

Also, Plan B is ‘the abortion pill’ but sterilization is just ‘permanent birth control’? Nice word choice.

I want to say a couple of things as a disclaimer. First, I strongly disagree with any policy or program that pays certain groups of women to be sterilized, particularly those who are in a vulnerable place and might use funds given to them for things that only further hurt them. Second, I strongly disagree with any policy or program whose only concern is preventing pregnancy, not in helping the women who could become pregnant. Treating women like they are no more than their reproductive organs is offensive and degrading and dehumanizing, period.

I think that if such organizations are really interested in helping women and their children, the organizations should do two things: 1) provide free temporary birth control, such as the pill or the shot, to women who request it, and 2) help these women (and their children) receive treatment, counseling, and a safe environment and support group in which rehabilitation can take place.

However, on this comment:

No one thinks that taking drugs or drinking to excess during pregnancy is a good idea — though it is worth repeated reminding that the crack baby myth is just that, a myth.

It’s worth noting that children born to addicted parents (that includes both) not only run the risk of higher birth defects (other illegal—and legal—drugs are associated with birth defects), but also get to look forward to a life of coming second to their parents’ addiction. These children are vulnerable to exploitation, multiple kinds of abuse, neglect, and even worse things that I do not even want to talk about here. I’ve seen it firsthand, and it is incredibly tragic to watch what addiction does not only to the people who are addicted, but also to their children who often end up becoming addicts themselves. And while I don’t think enforced sterilization is ever a solution, I don’t want to underplay how bleak a child’s chances are when they are born to an addicted mother and/or father for the sake of making my own argument about reproductive choice look better.

Really, though, the important thing is that enforced sterilization, apart from being beyond wrong, isn’t going to solve the problem of addiction’s negative effects on adults or children. The focus needs to be on providing treatment, counseling, support, and safety…factors which often keep addicts in a cycle of addiction, and keeps their children there with them.