A suburban New Orleans legislator is wants to pay poor women to undergo sterilization.

State Rep. John LaBruzzo said that the program he is thinking about would be voluntary.

Poor women would be paid $1,000 to have their fallopian tubes tied.

LaBruzzo, a Republican, said the plan could slow the growth of welfare rolls.

But critics of this plan and similar ones proposed in the past have long said the idea is racist.

Sheila Griffin, interim director of the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic, criticized the idea.

She said it targets poor black women and said better proposals to aid the poor would be to raise the minimum wage while improving education, labor laws and health care.