Pubdate: Sun, 14 Aug 2005
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Fred Kelly

SIGNS SOON TO OFFER ADDICTS CASH, CATCH

Controversial Group Targets Charlotte Area With Push To Sterilize

HARRISBURG - An RV painted with a picture of a crying baby sits on Main 
Street in this small town, advertising an unusual offer for drug addicts: 
Get sterilized and get $200.

It's one of the newest attention-grabbers Barbara Harris is using in her 
crusade to end the plague of "crack babies."

For nearly a decade, her organization, Project Prevention, has gained 
national attention by offering $200 to drug addicts who show proof they are 
sterilized or use long-term birth control.

But two years after moving the group's national headquarters to Cabarrus 
County, Harris is launching an advertising campaign to raise its profile in 
the Charlotte area.

Project Prevention has obtained 25 billboard spots scheduled to go up in 
Charlotte later this year. Harris said she plans to drive the RV the 
organization acquired six months ago into troubled neighborhoods to reach 
potential clients.

Since 1997 the group has paid 1,600 drug users across the United States, 
but no one in North Carolina has taken the offer. The organization has paid 
one person in South Carolina.

"We want to be like (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)," Harris said. "When 
people see drug addicts, we want them to think of us."

But her message stirs controversy. Opponents tore down signs in Oakland, 
Calif., advertising the organization's offer and women's groups, and 
advocates for the homeless in other cities have protested against Harris.

Critics say she spreads the worst stereotypes about inner-city women and 
promotes selective human reproduction. .

They point out public comments by Harris, who once said: "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."

David Finby is on the board of directors for the Mecklenburg Drug Free 
Coalition.

"It's disturbing," Finby said of Harris' plans for a campaign in Charlotte. 
"The heart is in the right place, but I just don't think this is right."

National spotlight

Harris, 53, started Project Prevention in Orange County, Calif., after she 
and her husband adopted four children born to a crack-cocaine user. The 
group has paid people in 39 states and Washington, D.C.The effort has 
thrust Harris into the national spotlight. She has appeared on "The Oprah 
Winfrey Show" and numerous other television shows and has been featured in 
Time and Newsweek magazines.

But there is little hint in Harrisburg that a nationally known figure works 
and lives in the town of 5,000 people about 15 miles northeast of uptown 
Charlotte. Harris and her husband moved there two years ago to be closer to 
family.

The organization, which has a $250,000 annual budget from a variety of 
contributors, is run entirely by Harris and her 23-year-old son, Rodney, 
from a small nondescript office on the second floor of a strip mall.

Project Prevention's billboard campaign in the Charlotte area will emulate 
what it has done in California, Rodney Harris said.

"We have 400 to 500 clients in California, and we want to create that kind 
of base here," he said.

The clientele

Clients call Project Prevention via a toll-free number advertised on the 
Internet, billboards and the RV, which Harris drives from city to city. 
They mail in documents from doctors or other sources showing they have a 
drug problem and have been sterilized or taken long-term birth control.

Harris said most of her clients do not want more children and the money is 
a needed enticement to get them to obtain birth control.

She says the typical client has five pregnancies and two children in the 
foster care system.

Harris said she saw firsthand the effects drugs taken during pregnancy have 
on babies when she brought her second adopted child home from the hospital.

"He could not keep food down for months," she said. "He was scared of the 
light. It was sad and frustrating."

Detractors contend she is spreading a stereotype.

"There is no science behind what she says," said Lynn Paltrow, executive 
director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York City. "The 
stereotypes the program promotes are devastating."

Unintended pregnancy is a problem that cuts across all social and economic 
lines, and scientific studies question the link between drug use during 
pregnancy and incessant crying and other symptoms associated with "crack 
babies." Drugs cannot be singled out from other factors, such as 
malnutrition and inadequate prenatal care, studies say.

The controversy

Harris has angered civil rights groups, who say she disproportionately 
seeks out poor minority women for sterilization.More than 30 percent of 
people who have received cash from Project Prevention are African American, 
the organization reports.

But blacks make up about 13 percent of the population in the country, and 
studies show they do not use drugs at a greater rate than whites.

"It's like something out of Nazi Germany," said Mary Barr, an anti-drug 
activist in New Jersey. "They are propagating myths."

Harris mocks suggestions that she is discriminating against blacks, 
pointing out that her husband and the four children they adopted are black.

"They are just ignorant," she says of her critics. "My husband always says, 
`If you were black, nobody would say anything.' "

She keeps a desk drawer filled with dozens of thank-you letters from former 
clients and supporters who describe life with an addiction.

"This is what keeps me going," Harris said.

Supporters

Despite the controversy, Harris has support among the wealthy and famous, 
including talk-radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

Houston venture capitalist Jim Woodhill said he has given about $250,000 to 
Project Prevention since 1999 when he read about the program in a magazine.

He said he does not understand why some people consider Harris' idea 
controversial.

"She's a moral force of nature," Woodhill said. "She's a hero."

States With Clients

Project Prevention has paid clients in 39 states, but none in North 
Carolina so far. Here is a breakdown of the group's clients in neighboring 
states.

South Carolina: 1

West Virginia: 1

Georgia: 2

Kentucky: 2

Tennessee: 3

Virginia: 30

Source: Project Prevention
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MAP posted-by: Beth