A Louisiana state lawmaker has proposed paying poor women on welfare to be voluntarily sterilized.
Rep. John LaBruzzo (R-Metairie), a New Orleans-area Republican, ignited a firestorm of protest after proposing the idea of paying poor women $1,000 if they would voluntarily undergo procedures that he said would help solve the problem of “generational welfare.”
LaBruzzo said the idea came when he and his staff were discussing ways to reduce the number of people relying on federal aid on the heels of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
“I realized all these people were in Louisiana’s care and what a massive financial responsibility that is to the state,” LaBruzzo told the New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper on Sept. 23. “I said, ‘I wonder if it might be a good idea to pay some of these people to get sterilized.”
LaBruzzo emphasized the voluntary nature of his program, saying that sterilization could include tubal ligation for women or vasectomies for men. He also mentioned tax incentives encouraging non-welfare families to have more children.
The proposal has been denounced in most quarters.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans called it “a form of eugenics that the Church and this country have always condemned as an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life.”
Barbara Thomas, president of the North Baton Rouge Women’s Health Center, called LaBruzzo’s proposal “an outrage,” telling CNSNews.com she was “thoroughly disappointed.”
Thomas likened the sterilization idea to the eugenics ideas espoused by Adolf Hitler – or, as some argue, Planned Parenthood founder’s Margaret Sanger.
“In my opinion, it’s trying to rid the community of undesirables, and that’s not right,” she added.
Although LaBruzzo has said he doesn’t support abortion and wouldn’t encourage it, pro-life activist Dr. Alveda King said that she doesn’t see a practical difference in terms of what he’s proposing.
“Sterilization is just as bad as what they call ‘therapeutic abortion,’” King told CNSNews.com. “Neither solves any of the problems of society, and it’s a racist approach to something that should be handled with human compassion.”
LaBruzzo did not comment to CNSNews.com, but he did defend his proposal to CNN on Sept. 26.
“With the $700 billion dollar bailout, I think the taxpayers of America are getting fed up and saying, ‘Look, we need people to go to work, and to help pull the wagon instead of generation after generation jumping into the wagon,’” he said.
“In Louisiana, the problem of generational welfare is a big problem. And we need to deal with it. And that’s what we were brainstorming about.”
The lawmaker may be feeling the heat, however. Daniel Loar, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that Rep. LaBruzzo is backing away from the controversial proposal.
“He said he was going to withdraw the idea and that he wanted to talk with us [the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops] about the concept of increasing the state tax credit for parents having children,” Loar told CNSNews.com. “So he has backed off, and I told him it was wise for him to back off from the idea of sterilization.
“I doubt that he realizes that David Duke, who used to represent that same district about 20 years ago, had made the same type of proposal,” Loar added. “John’s a younger guy, and I don’t know that he knew the history there, but it got everybody all excited, across the political spectrum. Nobody supported him (on this proposal.)”
Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, served as a Louisiana state representative in the late 1980’s.
Contact: Mary Jane O’Brien
Source: CNSNews.com
Source URL: www.CNSNews.com
Publish Date: October 6, 2008
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