Have you heard about an organization called “Project Prevention” that offers $300 to drug addicts to sterilize themselves.
The BBC reports that the organization has been busy as it has paid money out to 3,242 addicts (mostly women) and 1,226 were permanently sterilised. They’ve operated in 39 states.
The Star Bulletin reports one disturbing story:
Mona Rodarte watched state authorities take away her third baby a few months ago, and the trauma was enough to motivate her to consider Project Prevention’s offer to pay her $300 to get sterilized or start using long-term birth control.
Each child has a different father; two are in jail and all three are drug dealers. The 28-year-old Rodarte, who lives on Maui, had just graduated from a rehabilitation program. She had been clean and sober for six months. Determined to do things differently, she was looking forward to the birth of her baby.
But the change in environment, lack of structure and a return to what she described as a “dysfunctional” home sparked a relapse into her habitual crystal methamphetamine and alcohol abuse — two weeks before her baby was due.
That is when she lost her privilege to be a mother. Rodarte’s older sister is now raising the child, and brought Rodarte to Oahu to encourage her to obtain some form of long-term birth control.
“How does it feel that I’m on my third baby and I don’t have none of them, and I’m still doing the same thing?” Rodarte said. “It feels (frustrating).”
Though she was initially offended when approached with the sterilization/birth control offer, she gradually accepted its practicality.
“It was hard because I didn’t want them to take my baby away. But if I’m not done running around, I cannot bring any more lives into the world. I need to stop having kids that I’m not going to take care of.”
After talking with Barbara Harris, founder and director of the national nonprofit Project Prevention, and debating the issue for a time, Rodarte called a Maui clinic for Implanon, a long-term birth control device that is inserted under the skin and remains effective for years or until it is removed.
Surely this is a desperate situation but instead of pointing this woman to where she can find help she gives her money for long term birth control. Doesn’t she realize that this money will make her spiral deeper into drugs and make it less likely that she’ll ever be a mother to her children?
The organization goes around passing out flyers where they know drug use is high. Barbara Harris, the founder of the organization, has said she’s aware that many will spend the money she gives them on drugs.
This is what passes for love and compassion nowadays? In the past, Harris has passed out flyers saying: “DON’T Let a Pregnancy get in the way of your crack habit”.
“When I founded this organization, I never believed how big it would be,” she said in recent news reports. “Every day I feel like we’re making a difference.”
A difference?
March 15, 2010 at 3:53 am
So what happens when that "long term birth control" actually fails and the woman becomes pregnant? Does this program then pay for an abortion? I would suspect they'd highly advocate for one, but if it was their program that implanted this long term birth control do they pay for the abortion when it fails? And the poor child if the mother chooses to keep him/her and she continues her drug/alcohol habit. Oiy… what a horrible, ugly mess!
March 15, 2010 at 10:27 am
This woman is awesome!
She personally adopted 4 children from the same crack-addicted woman and that's what inspired her to start the progam.
She has walked the walk.
I love what she tells critics who say she should focus on drug treatment programs:
"If they feel so strongly about it then they need to start an organisation that does what they are telling me to do. I am concentrating on women who are addicted to drugs who are getting pregnant over and over again. That is really my focus."
March 15, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Dirtdartwife is right on about this. So much in society today is directed at the "symptom, " not the underlying problem. Oh, so your kid is very active, well, give him drugs, etc. etc. There's no easy fix (no pun intended) for difficult problems, and so many people don't want want to have to deal with difficulty and long term issues.
March 15, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Craig, I have to admit that I completely fail to understand most of yoru contrarian posts, even from a charitable Catholic perspective. How can you call good evil and evil good? Whatever good this woman may be doing in her own life by adopting children, she's directly aiding and abetting the violation of Natural Law and gravely sinful actions in her efforts to sterilize women so as to allow them to continue using drugs, alcohol and indiscriminate sex irresponsibly (all actions which are inherently irresponsible in the extreme!), an effort which even in its most charitable form can be characterized as nothing more than giving a Band-Aid to an amputee and wishing them "good luck."
Such blindness to the unintended consequences of one's actions, whether or not one adheres to the tenets of our Catholic faith, inevitably leads to greater evils by, in a sense, empowering those who do wrong to continue doing so without having to face the consequences of their actions.
This is the real problem with many so-called "progressive" ideas: what may start with the best of intentions (and I do believe this woman and people like her genuinely believe they are doing good and helping) ends up destroying the human person, body and soul. Because they have utter contempt for the reality of sin and the need for redemption among all men, secularists/moral relativists like this woman remain blind to the tremendous damage they wreak on people's lives in this world, and perhaps their eternal souls in the next. The answer lies in admitting, then taking, personal responsibility for one's sinful actions, then amending one's life to live in the Truth, not against it. God's mercy is endless, but He always allows us free will, which is always best used when it chooses the Good, not sin.
March 15, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Kevin,
I am not simply "being contrarian", I genuinely admire this woman.
Also, she isn't just "sterilizing" women and walking away. She is actively involved in helping her clients get clean so they can get their kids back.
March 15, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Craig,
I see no mention in the article or a brief Google search that she is providing *any* kind of rehab services beyond the encouragement of her message. Maybe you can point us to how she is "actively involved in helping her clients get clean."
I can see why someone would take this route. It makes a lot of practical sense. But the simple reality is that we cannot condone evil means for good ends. These means are dehumanizing .. and far too reminiscent of the sterilizations of the mentally disabled that were once a part of "health" policies in the US.
March 15, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Wine in the Water,
From her website faq:
4. Why aren't you spending your money on drug treatment?
"Project Prevention offers drug treatment referrals to all women that enter our program. Further, we have gone to great lengths to assist some individuals into treatment, or to locate a treatment program for them."
and this:
6. What are you doing for the addicts? Do you even care what happens to them?
"Barbara Harris writes on a continual basis with countless Project Prevention clients. She frequently sends cards of encouragement applauding their efforts to get or stay clean. Project Prevention has referred hundreds of clients to drug treatment programs nationwide.
What many people fail to consider are the negative effects on a woman's self-esteem of continually having children that are taken away. That only leads to the women feeling worse about themselves, and often times, leads them deeper into their addiction."
link:
http://www.projectprevention.org
March 15, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Craig,
Are you Catholic? Or do you just frequent this Catholic blog because it has a political bent and you like to debate?
I'm truly curious.
March 16, 2010 at 12:16 am
lavatea,
Italian/Irish, old-school, Roman Catholic. When nuns roamed the earth with pre-historic, sabre-tooth yardsticks.
March 16, 2010 at 1:33 am
It's not about if the birth control works, Dirtdartwife, it's the fact that she's taking it. Fertilization is a gift from God to women. According to my religion no one should have the right to take away fertilization.
March 16, 2010 at 1:35 am
Listen up Craig, it isn't awesome that this lady is paying druggies to sterilize themselves like I said in the comment above no one should take away a gift from God.
March 16, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Craig,
As far as I can tell, this woman is saying that the children she adopted shouldn't exist! She is saying to them, "It would have been better if you had never been born!"
Susan Peterson
March 16, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Craig,
So she is doing something. But referrals and encouraging correspondence are not much. They are a quiet companion to the very loud and dehumanizing message that it is a social ill that these women might breed.
March 17, 2010 at 10:30 am
eulogos,
Judging by the articles I've read, I don't think her kids feel that way. They travel with her when they can and help her spread the word about her program.
Wine in the Water,
It's only a "quiet companion" because MSM hasn't deemed it sensational enough to talk about.