News (Media Awareness Project) - Drug addict takes offer from O.C. group to pay her for being |
| Title: | Drug addict takes offer from O.C. group to pay her for being |
| Published On: | 1997-10-23 |
| Source: | Orange County Register News |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-07 21:00:56 |
STANTONAn Orange County group formed to curb the birth of crack babies
will make its first $200 payment to a drug addict who has agreed to have
her tubes tied,the group announced Wednesday.
The 28yearold Los Angeles woman,identified only as Sheila H. has given
birth to five crack babies. She will attend a Nov. 7 news conference in
Monterey Park, where she will receive her check and talk to reporters about
why she is volunteering to become the first woman to get a tubal ligation
under a program created by Barbara Harris of Stanton.
"We have to solve this terrible problem," Harris said in a telephone
answeringmachine message at the headquarters of the nonprofit group she
formed, Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity CRACK.
The program, which has drawn about 200 supporters, seeks to stem the birth
of crack babies by offering female drug addicts $200 for tubal ligation,
$50 to get a contraceptive inplant that lasts about five years or $20 to
get an injectable contraceptive.
Harris formed CRACK after she adopted four sibling crack babies, and also
has lobbied for legislation to make it a crime to give birth to a
frugaddicted baby.
The Los Angeles woman learned of the program while pregnant with her sixth
child and attending a drugtreatment program, the organization said. She
hopes to keep her latest baby, which was born recently. Her five older
children are in foster care.
The woman "decided she didn't want to chance having any more drugexposed
babies," the organization's statement said.
Orange County hospitals reported 378 drugbaby births in 1994, and 271 in
1995.
Harris formed CRACK last year to help reduce the number of drugaddicted
babies being put into foster care.
"The bottom line is I don't want them to get pregnant," Harris, who
couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, said in a 1996 interview. "If
the state won't do it, I'll do it myself. I guess that will be another big
controversial issue, but I just honestly believe that these women don't
want to be having babies anyway, so we're going to be doing them a favor."
will make its first $200 payment to a drug addict who has agreed to have
her tubes tied,the group announced Wednesday.
The 28yearold Los Angeles woman,identified only as Sheila H. has given
birth to five crack babies. She will attend a Nov. 7 news conference in
Monterey Park, where she will receive her check and talk to reporters about
why she is volunteering to become the first woman to get a tubal ligation
under a program created by Barbara Harris of Stanton.
"We have to solve this terrible problem," Harris said in a telephone
answeringmachine message at the headquarters of the nonprofit group she
formed, Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity CRACK.
The program, which has drawn about 200 supporters, seeks to stem the birth
of crack babies by offering female drug addicts $200 for tubal ligation,
$50 to get a contraceptive inplant that lasts about five years or $20 to
get an injectable contraceptive.
Harris formed CRACK after she adopted four sibling crack babies, and also
has lobbied for legislation to make it a crime to give birth to a
frugaddicted baby.
The Los Angeles woman learned of the program while pregnant with her sixth
child and attending a drugtreatment program, the organization said. She
hopes to keep her latest baby, which was born recently. Her five older
children are in foster care.
The woman "decided she didn't want to chance having any more drugexposed
babies," the organization's statement said.
Orange County hospitals reported 378 drugbaby births in 1994, and 271 in
1995.
Harris formed CRACK last year to help reduce the number of drugaddicted
babies being put into foster care.
"The bottom line is I don't want them to get pregnant," Harris, who
couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, said in a 1996 interview. "If
the state won't do it, I'll do it myself. I guess that will be another big
controversial issue, but I just honestly believe that these women don't
want to be having babies anyway, so we're going to be doing them a favor."
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