Are you there Margaret? It's me, Erica.

I found an opinion piece entitled, "A project born of concern: Project Prevention in the UK," from the Civil Society Media website, which is allegedly an independent news company that covers information about charities and other civil society organizations in the UK. The piece was published on January 4, 2011 and discusses the controversy surrounding Project Prevention; a charity from Orange County, California that offers money to women who are suffering from addiction to become sterilized (Mason, 2011).

Project Prevention (formerly Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity or CRACK) founder, Barbara Harris, believes that addicted mothers should not be able to have children. As expressed in the article, she has trouble understanding why everyone doesn't agree with her. She challenges readers to consider her solution, unless they plan on adopting these children born to impoverished mothers. Ironically, her solution is not a new one. It has been used by Imperialist nations since the beginning of time (Roper, 1992).

Sterilization became a hot topic in the 1920's and the Nazi party used it as one of their racial cleansing tools (Harding, 1993). My grandfather lost his feet to frost bite marching towards the Battle of the Buldge, he never re3turned to our family farm because he said "it was too boring", and he died a drunk on skid row from the mental damage he sustained from killing Nazis. Here was a man who fought and died to stop this dangerous philosophy that people who have fallen from societies graces should be killed. Has the Nazi Party message come back into vogue so soon?

Contrary to the spin of the propaganda machine message, sterilization did not begin with Adolf Hitler. Sterilization has always been a popular solution by the rich to control the poor. In 1907 (when Adolf Hitler was 18 years old) the “U.S. state of Indiana passed a forced sterilization law (for mental defectives). Before the German program began, at least seventeen U.S. states (including California) had 'forced sterilization' laws. Before 1930 there were 200-600 forced sterilizations per year (in the U.S.A.) but in the 1930s the rate jumped to 2,000-4,000 per year” (Reilly, 1991).

Let's backtrack to the early 1920's in the United States of America and look at the opinions of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Sanger was an open supporter of the Nazi party and their racial cleansing through eugenics. She professed sterilization of the African-American community because the fruitful multiplication of the poor threatened “modern” society. Sanger sought out and paid “colored ministers” with social-service backgrounds and engaging personalities to propagate her message of self-sterilization because, in her words, “the most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal.” She also felt her paid “colored ministers” would be the best agents for spin control if any leek of her plan to exterminate the Negro population was ever discovered by “its more rebellious members” (Collins, 2005).

Sterilization is a complicated and dangerous surgical procedure, and forced sterilization violates our rights as women and mothers, yet it is still seen as a viable option to control undesirables. Poor and minority women are still dealing with forced sterilization today, as in the case of Tessa Savicki. (Diaz-Duran, 2010) While undergoing a caesarean-section of her ninth child, doctors tied her tubes without her knowledge or consent, so that she could no longer reproduce. It is my goal to shed light on the racist founder of planned parenthood, Margret Sanger, and expose the dangers of sterilization. Let me be frank. An out of control government is your enemy. The health care monster has taken over our government. We, the sovereign People, are the only one who can stop this menace.

I am hotly pro-choice, and that support is not only unwavering, but I strongly teach pro-choice to my daughter. Most people don't know that the Roe v. Wade decision stands on the Right to privacy. I am against government usurping any of the rights of the People, especially privacy. Let me set this straight. I am against abortion, but I am pro-choice. In other words, I advocate for people to stop killing innocent babies, because that's what it is, murder. But, I am 100% against any government being involved in the my medical decisions at all. It is none of their business. G-d gave us free moral choice, and We, the People, should be free to use it.

Government sterilization of the poor can only be by misinformation or force. People erroneously believe that just because we have the scientific and technological ability to do something, that it is progress and we should do it. We women need to wake up and realign our goals to uplift our fellow sister who is obviously going through times of trial. Some would argue that the generational trial they still suffer from is the slavery that we placed upon them. Instead of violating their G-d given Rights and destroying their posterity, we should support them until they regain their footing. Just because women have fallen on hard times doesn't give the government the right to destroy their children. Let's stand together with our sister against the government who lies in wait for her destruction.

References

Collins , P. (2005). Engineering evolution: the alchemy of eugenics. Retrieved from http://www.hospicepatients.org/alchemy-eugenics.html

Diaz-Duran, C. (2010, December 07). Sterilized for being poor? [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-16/sterilized-for-being-poor/

Harding, S. G. (1993). The "Racial" economy of science: toward a democratic future. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Mason, T. (2011). A project born of concern: project prevention in the uk. Civil Society Governance, Retrieved from http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/opinion/content/7997/a_project_born_of_concern_project_prevention_in_the_uk

Reilly, P. (1991). The surgical solution: a history of involuntary sterilization in the united states. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Roper, A. (1992). Ancient eugenics. The Mankind Quarterly, 32(4), 383-419.

Mamas, unite!