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Cracking open CRACK: Unethical sterilization movement gains momentum

By Judith M. Scully

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“We don’t 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.” These are the words of Barbara Harris, a 47-year-old homemaker from Stanton, California, who has started an organization called Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (CRACK). Despite its benevolent name, CRACK’s primary goal is to promote population control by paying $200 to women with substance abuse problems who can document that they have been sterilized or are using long-term birth control such as Norplant, Depo-Provera or an IUD.

Judith M. Scully is an Associate Professor at the West Virginia University College of Law. Prior to becoming a law professor she was a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer in Chicago. She is also a trained gynecological health care worker and has been a reproductive rights activist for 15 years. This article was written with the assistance of Rajani Bhatia and the Dangerous Contraceptives Task Force of the Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment.