"Don't Let Your Pregnancy Get in the Way of Your Drug Addiction": CRACK and the Ideological Construction of Addicted Women

The article analyzes the rhetorical strategies used by CRACK (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity), a private nonprofit organization that pays women in impoverished areas to take long-term contraceptives (LTC) and for their permanent sterilization. The author argues that CRACK exploits women with...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Derkas, Erika (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2011
In: Social justice
Year: 2011, Volume: 38, Issue: 3, Pages: 125-144
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Services for the poor
Prevention
Sterilization (Birth control)
Contraceptives
Poor women
Women drug addicts
Drug use in pregnancy
Public relations in nonprofit organizations
Discourse Analysis
Rhetoric
Description
Summary:The article analyzes the rhetorical strategies used by CRACK (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity), a private nonprofit organization that pays women in impoverished areas to take long-term contraceptives (LTC) and for their permanent sterilization. The author argues that CRACK exploits women with drug addictions by comparing their assumed cultural background with popular notions of white, middle-class motherhood. Exploring long-term effects for women and children, the article suggests that CRACK's philosophy and public discourse claiming a logical solution to prenatal drug exposure is false.