Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jul 2003
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Karen Garloch
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?175 (Pregnancy)

ADDICTS GET CASH FOR BIRTH CONTROL 

Critics Call Effort Wrong, Racist

Barbara Harris sits with her children - clockwise - Destiny, 13 yrs.,
Brandon, 9, Taylor, 11, and Isiah, 12. Harris and her husband Smitty
have adopted seven children.

When Barbara and Smitty Harris adopted four of eight children born to
a Los Angeles crack addict, they saw firsthand how drugs taken during
pregnancy can harm infants.

An angry Barbara Harris came up with an unorthodox plan to prevent
such births.

She offered to pay $200 to any addict who got sterilized or used
long-term birth control. Since 1997, about 1,000 women and 24 men have
taken the money.

This week, the controversial cash-for-contraception program -- called
CRACK (Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity) -- opens its national
headquarters in Harrisburg, about 3 miles northeast of UNC Charlotte.

The Harrises recently moved from California to be closer to his High
Point relatives, but the change doesn't mean CRACK is targeting
addicts in the Carolinas. Clients from across the country reach CRACK
through a toll-free phone number -- 1-888-302-7225 -- advertised on
brochures, billboards and a Web site.

Harris, 50, a white high school dropout whose father threw her out
when she gave birth to a black child out of wedlock, said her goal is
to prevent child abuse.

"Women are allowed to drop off as many damaged babies at the local
hospital as they can drop off," she said. "They don't even have to
stick around to watch the children suffer.

"For them to get on birth control is positive, even if it takes a cash
incentive ...This is voluntary. The women come to us."

Voluntary or not, CRACK has drawn criticism from women's rights
advocates and ethicists who say Harris unfairly targets low-income
black women and perpetuates a stereotype that they have too many
children and cause many of society's problems.

"What she is doing is perfectly legal and entirely unethical," said
Angela Holder, a lawyer and ethics professor at Duke University's
Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities.

"She talks about these women as if they're animals," said Holder, who
first saw Harris on New York City TV several years ago.

"I was absolutely horrified," Holder said. "It's like something out of
the Third Reich."

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the New York-based National
Advocates for Pregnant Women, said CRACK diverts attention from more
serious problems, such as fetal alcohol syndrome and the lack of drug
treatment programs and health care.

"By focusing attention on welfare queens and pregnant drug-using
women, it makes it appear that society's problems are the fault of
certain women ... It's very emotional and very persuasive, but it
prevents rational discussion of what is causing the harm."

Paltrow, who has debated Harris on TV talk shows, said Harris spreads
misinformation about the effects on babies born to cocaine-addicted
mothers. "It's not a good drug to use," Paltrow said, "but it is not
causing the kind of IQ and neurological problems that continue to be
reported."

Herb Kleber, an addiction researcher at New York's Columbia
University, said babies born to cocaine addicts sometimes go through
withdrawal. But he said that's not as big a concern as developmental
delays and other problems that can show up later.

"The evidence is very clear that there are long-term effects. What's
not clear is what the cause of that is," he said. "... It's very hard
to find women who only do cocaine. Usually those that are doing
cocaine also are not eating properly. Most of them smoke. Most of them
drink. They may not be terribly good mothers."

Harris said she doesn't target low-income women, but "wealthy drug
addicts wouldn't be interested in our offer."

She said she pays alcoholics as well as cocaine addicts, and doesn't
care what color they are. Of CRACK's clients, 498 have been Caucasian,
341 African American, the rest, other races.

Harris said people who call her a racist "don't know anything about
me. I'm the only white person in my house."

Her husband, his three sons from a previous marriage, her son from
another relationship, their two biological sons, and their four
adopted children -- Destiny, Isiah, Taylor and Terrell -- are black.

"When I got Destiny, she was delayed in everything. Now she's an honor
roll student," Harris said. "I'm not saying every crack baby is doomed
. but if Destiny would have stayed in foster care, she wouldn't be
the person she is today."

Women who claim CRACK's $200 payments usually get their birth control
or sterilization procedures paid for by Medicaid, a state and federal
health program. If they use the cash to buy drugs, Harris says that's
their choice and at least they're not having babies.

Of her clients, 416 women have had tubal ligations, 407 took
Depo-Provera injections in three-month doses, 130 chose intrauterine
devices, and 37 got Norplant before it was withdrawn from the market
last year. Twenty-four men had vasectomies.

Those who choose Depo-Provera get $200 a year for as long as they get
four injections a year, while those who get sterilized get the payment
only once. Harris also offers $50 for referrals.

The money is donated. The first $400 came from a lawyer friend. More
poured in after Harris got national media attention.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger has given money and often plugs CRACK on her
tough-love radio talk show. Wealthy donors include Richard Scaife,
heir to the Mellon fortune in Pittsburgh, and Jim Woodhill, a Houston
venture capitalist who read about Harris in Time magazine and sent her
a $100,000 check.

Woodhill, who started a similar organization in Houston, said,
"Barbara and I just clicked. We're just such believers in the cause."

Harris said CRACK supporters wouldn't donate money for drug treatment
because they don't think it works. "That's not the solution to the
problem," she said. "... It's not the women who are the victims. It's
the children." 
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin