Should the government pay women to have their tubes tied?

Reminds me of the practice of sterilizing women in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has the highest rate of female sterilization in the world. Women who worked in factories were given time off to have the procedure at clinics in the factories themselves. In the case of Puerto Rico women were pressured to be sterilized after delivering a child and were offered a longer hospital stay if they agreed to the procedure. It was often not explained to these women that sterilization was permanent and irreversible. Sterilization was often the only birth control option offered to poor women. Sterilization was strongly promoted in educational films in schools.

Often programs like these have racist undertones. In Puerto Rico the poor and uneducated were highly targeted. In the mainland large numbers of Native American women were also sterilized to deal with the “Indian problem.” Many of the founders of Planned Parenthood were active in the eugenics program and felt that the wrong sorts of people were procreating too frequently. They wanted to provide family planning to the poor and minorities as a way to keep people they considered undesirable from from having more children.

This one is a toughie…One one had, there IS something hinky about the idea of using “bribery”…

However, when these women are talking about their “reproductive rights”, the “tageting of the poor”, etc., it doesn’t sound to me like they are so “undeducated” that they can’t make a decision based on personal values, within themselves. I mean something other than the “want” of a thousand bucks…

Now that I’ve written all that out, the plan makes my guts queasy… Why? Because I think that most of these women, could have had their tubes tied, for free…if that’s what they truly wanted, at birth of their last child…and obviously that’s NOT what they wanted.

Hinky…hinky…hinky!

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I’ve advocated this idea in the past, but without the monetary incintive (in other words, free sterilization available to whoever wants it).

I don’t have a problem with the incintive, but in general, I oppose programs that benefit only the poor. It should be open to everyone or to no-one. There’re a hell of a lot of people who want these procedures done, but can’t afford it. Why should you get special medical care that many working for a living don’t get, just because you’re not working for a living?

It makes me angry, mainly because they are targeting the poor, almost like saying “Hey poor people, you shouldn’t reproduce, we don’t need more of you, here” and then dangling money in front of them. It may be voluntary, but damn that is unethical in my book.

If it is voluntary then what is thebig deal?? If you know for sure you don’t want to have kids of don’t want anymore, then why not do it and get $1000 buckaroosss? Sounds good to me..

I’ve had my tubes tied and I think it’s great…but they shouldn’t be signaling out poor women to offer it to. I think (as toadaly said) it should be offered to any woman that wants it. To me though, I think they also need to do something about the men…why signal out poor women when there are men out there impregnating every woman they come across.

If they are going to do this then it should be open to everyone…man, woman, rich or poor.

Oh yes, what could possibly go wrong here… you’re talking about taking advantage of the poor and uneducated who probably dont realize the implications, and are living hand to mouth… what happened to reproductive rights? or is that only for those who can afford it? personally I think it’s absolutely outrageous, he’s trying to weed out the poor? it is racist and sexist and immoral!

The big deal around here is that the african americans are saying that he is singeling them out and trying to force them to have their tubes tied. It is for women on welfare who are poor. They are saying that when offered that kind of money, how could they refuse. They are turning it into a race thing also. Saying that it is targeting african american women and poor women. They are saying it’s taking away their rights to reproduce. They are undereducated and feel they are being taken advantage of.

editor:

That’s pretty much how I feel about the situation. I could not believe that this is actually being considered to go into effect. They are waving around 1,000 dollars in front of poor people. That may not seem like a lot of money to us, but to them it’s a ton! They are paying people to give away their rights to reproduce. They are trying to weed out the poor and the people on welfare. Those are the only people that this is being provided to, welfare recievers. I was so shocked when I saw this on the news.

They tried something like this years ago I think in PA. The ACLU and NAACP shot it down.