STERILIZATION SHOULDN'T BE A CASH DEAL

It's not difficult to understand why Barbara Harris decided to start
CRACK (Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity).

Over the course of four years, the Anaheim, Calif., woman and her
husband adopted four drug-addicted babies born to the same woman.
Surely the Harrises must have been frustrated at the suffering their
children endured because of their biological mother's behavior.

But what could the Harrises do to stop it? Barbara Harris came up with
CRACK as a solution: Pay women $200 cash if they agree to be
sterilized or use long-term birth control. In addition, if the
sterilization procedure isn't covered by Medicaid or the woman's
insurance, CRACK also picks up the tab for that. CRACK is funded by
private donations.

As terrible as the problem of drug-addicted babies is, paying their
mothers to forgo their fertility is not the way to solve it. It is a
cynical solution that preys upon the desperation of women who often
will do anything - sell their bodies, commit crimes - to get money for
drugs.

While it may prevent future pregnancies, it does nothing to help the
woman kick her habit and gain back her life.

Over the past four years, CRACK has spread to numerous U.S. cities,
bolstered by the efforts of well-meaning volunteers. It now has begun
a low-profile push in Detroit, where about 30 billboards throughout
the community advertise the program.

CRACK has given cash to 392 women nationwide. Those women reported
having 2,213 pregnancies - an average of more than five apiece. Of
those pregnancies, 755 ended in abortion, 193 babies either died at
birth or shortly afterward and 777 were placed in foster homes.

Tragic? Yes. But a cash-for-sterilization proposition is not the right
way to deal with the problem. It perpetuates drug use and the woman's
downward spiral. CRACK critics are probably correct when they say that
most of the money goes to buy more drugs.

What happens to the woman who gets her act together, kicks her drug
habit and decides she is ready to create a future for herself? If she
has been sterilized through the CRACK program, she will have excluded
any children from that future - all because, at a low point in her
life, she succumbed to the desire for money over what really matters
in life.

CRACK is a quick-fix solution for a problem that has no easy answers.