Some state legislators have seen Norplant as a tool for reducing the number of children born into poverty, and by extension, curbing welfare costs. A Kansas legislator proposed that welfare recipients who accepted Norplant be paid an extra $500, plus $50 a year. The bill was quickly voted down.
In Louisiana, State Representative David Duke, the unsuccessful candidate for governor, proposed legislation offering $100 a year to welfare recipients who used Norplant. That, too, was defeated.
Duke's district, State House District 81, is currently represented by John Labruzzo.
Update: In the comments here, Clay points out that the Hatin' 81st was also represented by Vitty Cent back in his "serious sin" filled "past" Quite the fertile ground for solid family values legislators, that Hatin' 81st is.
Upperdate: Labruzzo has said he plans to "research" this issue. The T-P's Mark Waller and Jan Moller give him a head start here.
State Rep. John LaBruzzo says the government should consider cash incentives for poor people to undergo reproductive sterilization, because society is careening toward a day when persons on public assistance outnumber taxpayers and the economy collapses. A look at Louisiana welfare numbers suggests his fear is unfounded.
Figures from the state Department of Social Services show recipients of the main form of welfare, the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program, have plunged from a monthly average of 280,177 people in fiscal 1990-91 to 13,504 people in 2006-07. The monthly grant to a qualifying mother with two children is now $240.
Total annual spending over the 16-year period dropped from $187.2 million to $16.5 million, less than legislators earmarked for pet projects.
The main reason for the decline, said Social Services spokeswoman Cheryl Michelet, is the 1996 federal welfare reform legislation signed by President Clinton. It put a five-year lifetime cap on benefits.
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