Program that pays addicts for long-term birth control coming to Las Vegas

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 12:19 p.m.

Despite harsh criticism from the local NAACP, a California-based group plans to set up shop in Las Vegas this week, offering $200 to any drug-addicted woman who agrees to be sterilized.

Barbara Harris, founder of Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity, or CRACK, said payments also will be made to addicted women who go on long-term birth control such as Norplant, Depo-Provera or intrauterine devices.

Details of the local program will be discussed at a news conference Friday. Las Vegas women who have taken up CRACK on its offer also will speak, Harris said.

"Our program has one goal: preventing unwanted pregnancies that are doomed to abortion or that result in babies born HIV-positive, disabled, stillborn, drug-addicted or dumped by their mothers," said Harris, who founded CRACK in 1994 in Orange County.

"Simply put, we want to prevent repeat pregnancies in women who are addicted to drugs or alcohol."

Harris, who said her organization is financed entirely by donations - including one from syndicated advice guru Laura Schlessinger - added she is unfazed that CRACK's Las Vegas debut was postponed in October after a billboard company, Outdoor Systems Advertising, pulled graphic ads for the group.

The ads - which featured a photograph of a 2-pound "drug baby" - were removed from billboards after citizens complained.

Harris vowed to arrange replacements through another company.

"I think that, if anything, the public should be offended by the problem, rather than the billboard," she said.

Gene Collins, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was deeply offended by CRACK's approach, particularly the sterilization offer.

"The NAACP is totally against any sterilization. That went on in the South years ago when they were trying to control the African-American population," he said.

Collins added: "You also have to keep in mind that drug addiction is a sickness. You don't have to deal with it by getting women sterilized so they can no longer have children. If you really want to help those people, get them into treatment, give them the opportunity to redeem themselves."

According to CRACK's Web site, 150 women nationwide had received $200 payments as of Tuesday, with 89 choosing sterilization, 20 opting for Norplant, 20 agreeing to Depo-Provera treatments and 13 choosing IUDs.

J.J. Straight, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada, said her organization was "basically neutral" on the CRACK program, but she nonetheless urged caution among potential participants.

"There is a fine line between incentive and coercion, and since some programs like this might involve options that basically can't be reversed, we hope that these women are getting all the relevant information they need before taking the money," Straight said.