Woman claims she was offered £200 to be sterilised

A woman has claimed she was approached near a health centre in Glasgow by three women who offered her £200 if she agreed to be sterilised.

Deborah Wilson said the offer was made as she left Possilpark Health Centre with her nine-year-old son on Friday.

Ms Wilson said the women told her they were from Project Prevention, a US group which pays drug addicts to be voluntarily sterilised.

Police advised anyone approached in a similar way to contact them.

Ms Wilson, a mother-of-two, said she was shaken by the incident.

"As we left the health centre I saw three ladies coming out of a car and they told me there was this new scheme, offering £200," she said.
Barbara Harris Barbara Harris is the founder of Project Prevention

"Then I saw a bit of paper in her hand and it had drug addicts written on it.

"I'm not a addict. I think I was approached because I was in the Possilpark area - it's a well-known area for drugs - but that's where my doctor is based."

Ms Wilson said she was particularly angry because the women had asked her in front of her son.

"I'm very hurt and angry that someone could approach me in the street and ask me those sorts of questions at all, let alone when I had my nine-year-old with me," she said.
An argument

"I asked her to leave me alone but she kept going on and on so I had an argument with her and got on the bus to go home.

"My son knew they were asking me questions, and he asked me what it meant to be sterilised."

Ms Wilson, who said she also saw the women approaching others after she had left, said she contacted Strathclyde Police when she returned home.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said they believed it had been an isolated incident but advised anyone similarly approached to contact their local police station.

Project Prevention's website states that its aim is to reduce the number of "substance-exposed" births to zero.

[link to news.bbc.co.uk]