House Rep. Proposes $1000 Incentive for Poor Women to be Sterilized, Draws Comparisons to Nazism

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08100111.html

[LifeSiteNews] 3 Oct 2008--Representative John LaBruzzo (R - Metairie) recently proposed fixing the welfare problem in New Orleans by offering poor women $1000 to be sterilized, a suggestion that New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes has condemned as "blatantly anti-life" and eugenic in nature.

Louisiana Rep. LaBruzzo proposed the plan last week, which may also include vasectomies for poor men as well as a tax incentive for richer, better-educated citizens to have more children. LaBruzzo aims to steer the demographic away from welfare recipients, who he claims are reproducing too fast, saying, "We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out."
Archbishop Hughes slammed LaBruzzo for promoting the eugenicist's "selective breeding" mentality.

"The Catholic Church has consistently taught that direct sterilization is seriously wrong," said the Archbishop in a statement. "The recent proposal of Rep. LaBruzzo not only would make sterilization our public policy and require tax payers to pay for it, but would also constitute a form of eugenics that the Church and this country have always condemned as an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life."

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said the Church would oppose Labruzzo's plan if it became legislation.

Voices across the political spectrum bashed LaBruzzo's plan for reflecting the eugenic policies of Nazi Germany.