Emma, that is far more illuminating. I can understand your first post and concerns about the programme if this is what lies beneath the smiling and supportive veneer on the website.

*However*, I would still support a state-run programme which offered long-term contraception (alongside rehab or counselling) to women with addiction. And if it offered financial incentives to encourage them to take part, I'm not sure I would be morally outraged. I think that until we "fix" the bigger, more abstract problems in society, short-term solutions which help to contain them need to be looked at.

I know some people will say, "But they will only spend the money on drugs!" Well, we don't withhold social security benefits from the drug- or alcohol-dependent despite knowing they will probably spend it on drugs...so if a small regular payment can help to ensure that these women at least refrain from getting pregnant until they are in a better place in their own lives and more emotionally equipped to deal with the responsibility of parenting, I am persuaded that it could be an acceptable part of the solution. There are just too many unwanted kids at the moment ending up in a failing care system that damages them beyond repair and spits them out. Many of them are the children of addicts. We need some solutions that break this awful cycle.