State Rep. John Labruzzo seeks to reduce ‘generational welfare’

[Comment Below]

By Jalissa Bates

State Representative and LSU alumnus John Labruzzo (R-Metairie) has been thrust in the public light over his proposed sterilization plan to end generational welfare over the past few weeks. Labruzzo has been studying a plan to pay poor women $1000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied, according to nola.com.

“What I’m really studying is any and all possibilities that we can reduce the number of people that are going from generational welfare to generational welfare,” Labruzzo said to nola.com.

The plan is voluntary and offers tubal litigation for women and vasectomies for men. The idea of sterilization for groups isn’t new as the social study of eugenics repeats itself through history.

Questions cloud the formative issue, which has brought a host of criticism for Labruzzo’s study as “racist, sexist, unethical, and immoral.”

Challen Nicklen, Women and Gender Studies assistant visiting professor, discussed the budding plan to her students in class.

“I brought the article to the attention of my students,” said Nicklen, “because it directly links with many of the issues that we address in the course including reproductive rights.”

“We had also recently been discussing questions of power, privilege, and oppression” Nicklen said.

Students fell on both sides of the issue and some were unsure, Nicklen said. Some students saw the plan said Nicklen as an effective way to decrease government spending on health care.

“Others thought that they should make it voluntary, and not necessarily applicable to a particular group,” Nicklen said.

Many details are left to be covered, such as hospital costs, availability of insurance, long term effects, legal issues, and age restrictions.

“It’s not a matter of whether or not the incentive of $1000 is sufficient,” Nicklen said. “No matter the amount of money, the proposal is about discouraging some groups from having children (poor people) and encouraging other groups (non-poor people) to have children.”

She said it’s about trying to put a simple, perhaps misguided, fix on a much more complex problem.

“In the short term one might see a decrease in welfare spending” said Nicklen. “But it does nothing to address the multifaceted problem of poverty.”

One thing is for certain to solve any problem there is to be more research and more voices to solve them realistically.

Representative Labruzzo declined to comment.

Originally Published: Issue 776 - October 8, 2008

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