-Caveat Lector-
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Here is today's ZNet Commentary Delivery from Betsy Hartmann.
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Cracking Open CRACK
By Betsy Hartmann
"We don't allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to
keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally
having litters of children..."
These are the words of Barbara Harris, founder of the organization CRACK,
Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity. Based in California, CRACK's
mission is to permanently or temporarily sterilize women with substance
abuse problems using monetary incentives of $200. As of September 1,
1999, 65 women received cash from CRACK in return for their fertility; 46
of them were permanently sterilized. CRACK has opened a chapter in
Chicago and is planning to expand to Minnesota, Florida, Seattle and the
New England area.
What is so shocking about CRACK is not only the fact that it exists --
eugenic thinking is all too alive and well in the US -- but the fact that
it has received such positive press attention, with favorable articles or
editorials in People, Time, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and the Chicago
Tribune. Once again sacrificing the reproductive rights of poor women and
women of color is considered the simple solution to complex social ills.
In its fact sheet on CRACK, the Committee on Women, Population and the
Environment lays out the reasons why we should strongly oppose the
organization:
1) CRACK'S MISSION IS ESSENTIALLY EUGENIC. Eugenic sterilization laws in
the early decades of this century led to the compulsory sterilization of
some 60,000 Native-Americans, African-Americans, the mentally and
physically disabled, and the poor. Now, at the end of the century,
private fertility clinics offer young, educated and privileged women
$2500-50,000 to donate their eggs, while CRACK offers poor women with
substance abuse problems $200 not to have children.
Though apparently voluntary, CRACK's incentives have far more to do with
coercion than with choice. Poor women with substance abuse problems are
not likely to be able to make an informed decision about their
reproductive capacity if offered cash as an incentive. CRACK takes
advantage of their vulnerability by advertising, "Don't let a pregnancy
ruin your drug habit," and "If you use drugs, get birth control, get $200
cash."
2) CRACK LIMITS BIRTH CONTROL OPTIONS AND INCREASES HEALTH RISKS. CRACK
irresponsibly limits birth control options by compensating only for
long-term, provider-controlled methods: tubal ligation, Norplant, Depo
Provera and IUDs. These are all associated with substantial health risks,
and it is unlikely that women who are CRACK targets have access to the
kind of health care which provides adequate contraceptive counseling,
screening for contraindications and monitoring of side effects. Meanwhile,
barrier methods such as the condom which protect against HIV infection and
other sexually transmitted diseases are not compensated by CRACK.
3) CRACK IMPEDES THE GOAL OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT. CRACK's
quick-fix
approach effectively gives up on treatment as a solution to addiction. So
long as women with addiction problems stop having children, nothing else
seems to matter. CRACK does not recognize addiction as a medical problem
which responds to appropriate treatment. This is part of a larger
national trend of criminalizing poor women of color with addiction
problems, putting them in prison for 'child abuse' during pregnancy,
rather than offering them drug treatment programs.
4) CRACK CAPITALIZES ON THE NOTION OF 'CRACK BABIES' AS WASTED LIVES.
Acknowledging that using drugs during pregnancy can harm an infant is very
different from CRACK's message that women on drugs should not have babies
at all. The notion of 'crack babies' as wasted human lives came about in
the late 1980s when reporters exaggerated the effect of crack cocaine on
infants and preschoolers. They emphasized the most alarming predictions
of doctors and researchers that these infants would experience learning
disabilities, attention and behavior disorders, and would have to be
written off as a 'lost generation' or 'biological underclass.' Today,
there is practically scientific consensus that crack cocaine does no more
damage to infants than cigarette smoking and does less damage than heavy
alcohol use. CRACK perpetuates the "crack babies" myth, further
stigmatizing children labeled as such and contributing to misinformation
among the public.
5) OPPRESSION NEEDS TO BE ELIMINATED, NOT THE REPRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF
WOMEN. Women with substance abuse problems need drug treatment, decent
jobs, educational opportunities, and mental health and childcare services.
If they want birth control, they should have access to high, quality
voluntary birth control services as part of respectful, comprehensive
health care. It is the lack of all these things and the denial of human
dignity which exacerbate conditions of poverty, racism, social status and
gender discrimination. These conditions can lead to women seeking out
substances to medicate pain. Oppression needs to be eliminated, not the
reproductive capacity of women.
For more information on the campaign against CRACK, contact CWPE at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- Betsy Hartmann
Director, Population and Development Program
Hampshire College
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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