This is taken from the Wiki article on Barbara Harris. Some of her comments are outrageous:
Project Prevention (founded and formerly known as Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity or C.R.A.C.K.) is an American non-profit organization which also has a presence in the United Kingdom, which pays drug addicts cash for volunteering for long-term birth control, including sterilization. Since January 2006 Project Prevention has offered US$300 (ÂĢ200 in the UK) to each participant. As of 26 April 2010 (statistics page still current as of 17 October 2010 (2010 -10-17)[update]) Project Prevention said it had paid 3,388 "clients" including 1,260 women sterilized by tubal ligation, 4,428 abortions and 47 men having vasectomies.
Barbara Harris founded the organization in 1997 after she and her husband adopted four children from a drug-addicted mother. After the experience of helping the children through withdrawal and other health problems, she attempted to get legislation passed in California which would have mandated sterilization for mothers who gave birth to babies who were exposed to cocaine as fetuses; after this failed she started what is now called Project Prevention.
Controversy
The organization has provoked controversy, partly from the way in which it promotes its activities, including allegedly targeting poor and minority neighborhoods for the placement of billboard advertising, and distributing flyers with slogans such as "DON'T Let a Pregnancy get in the way of your crack habit". In interviews Barbara Harris compared pregnant women to dogs that need to be neutered. This stance has invoked comparisons by Concerned Women for America to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century.Ms. Harris has repeatedly compared the women the program targets to animals, stating that "Iâm not saying these women are dogs, but theyâre not acting any more responsible than a dog in heat." She has also stated: "We donât 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." In other contexts, she again compared women to animals, stating, "theyâre having litters. They are literally having litters", "we campaign to neuter dogs and yet we allow women to have 10 or 12 kids that they canât take care of and, "we have campaigns to spay cats to prevent them from having unwanted kittens, yet we allow these women to have litters of 14 children." On the television news program 60 Minutes II, Ms. Harris was asked about these comments on a television program and reaffirmed them, saying, "Well, you know my son that goes to Stanford said âmom, please donât ever say that again,â but itâs the truth, they donât just have one and two babies, they have litters."
British Isles
The group has an increasing presence in Britain, and the Project Prevention website has a "United Kingdom" section. Reports include an instance in May 2010: a woman, not an addict and accompanied by her 9-year-old son, was approached while leaving a clinic in Glasgow, Scotland by three women who said they were from Project Prevention and insistently offered ÂĢ200 if she agreed to be sterilised. She reported that the same group had been approaching other women; Strathclyde police were informed, and advised anyone approached in a similar way to contact them
There has been criticism in Britain (e.g., by organisations Addaction, Victory Outreach, Hackney Dovetail Centre) and support (Reverend Martin Blakebrough, director of Camden's Kaleidoscope Project in north London). The British Medical Association stated that it did not have a view. Maria Cripps of the Hackney Dovetail Centre said "I think Barbara uses some very extreme examples to get her point across. It might work in America but Great Britain is a very different country. Harris admitted her methods amounted to "bribery", but said it was the only way to stop babies being physically and mentally damaged by drugs during pregnancy. The BBC made a television programme, called "Inside London: Sterilising The Addicts" ("BBC Scotland Investigates: Addicts - No Children Allowed" in Scotland), broadcast on 18 October 2010 by BBC One London, BBC One East Midlands and the BBC iPlayer.
Harris has said that Ireland might be her next target. Dr Fiona Weldon, clinical director of Dublin addictions treatment facility the Rutland Centre, said "People who suffer from addictions are not in the right frame of mind to be making decisions of this magnitude. While the people behind the scheme may be well intentioned, they are misguided and I think they could be leaving themselves open to litigation in the future. Imagine a woman who chooses to have full sterilisation and years later gets clean and realises she cannot have children."