To abort my unborn baby if you tell me to?

[thereistheball]

Not me! This couple. They are Pete and Alisha Arnold, and she is 17 weeks pregnant. They can't decide whether or not to keep the baby so are putting it to the vote, which closes two days before she reaches 20 weeks.

Some of the site content is down, but they appear to be genuine. I heard about this from Gawker.com Sorry if this has been done before - if so I haven't seen it and am and

Is it even legal to have an abortion that late in the state of Minnesota? I doubt it.

I know it's in America and they might have different rules, but in the UK a doctor wouldn't let someone have an abortion if their reason was, "Internet people told me to," so the choice is never 100% the woman's IYSWIM.

I think you can have an abortion until 24 weeks in Minnesota. I think. I know someone who had one when she was in her second trimester.

Haven't read everything but the minute I saw this I knew it would be a pro-life stunt.

"It's kind of like Congress. They might vote for something, but the president has the final veto. If it's overwhelming one way or the other, that will carry a lot more weight."

So they aren't actually going to do what people vote for, they are going to do whatever they have already chosen to do, but get a lot of attention while they do it.

Only in America

I'm just waiting for the update in a short while where they do the massive publicity release - i wonder if they will come outright and admit it's a pro life publicity stunt or if they will just announce something like "having weighed up the options, we feel like abortion is the wrong thing for us, and i've come to realise how sacred human life... blah blah". Interesting to see how this develops (interesting, but doesn't make it less sick or distasteful, of course).

Just what exactly are you saying, Terrys?

Whatever it is, you're probably right. :o We do grow 'em crazy over here.

I'm hoping if they DO decide to go ahead social services will be breathing down their necks damn hard, i'm very pro choice but to go about the decision in this way is just wrong

Mugglewump-So you think babies have NO rights untill they're born?!?
What a lovely person you must be.

I have to say there are some total utter freaks in this world. To do that... they are up there with Josef Friztl IMHO!

Any freak who can play russian roulette with a childs life like that should be....

speaking as a mother, and one who has just MC pg 2 i think its absolutely disgusting.

Get shot of them and save the poor child!

biggest freaks are the participants of the blog

There are some serious nuts in the world.

Sorry if it's already been posted, but there's an update on gawker.com.

What twats.

Maybe the whole social services thing is part two or even the main point of this -- lots of people are baying for ss to become involved, and maybe the couple will point out that it's perfectly legal to consider abortion and to go ahead with it, but if you decide not to, then your fitness as a parent is questioned?

After all, I bet there are quite a few babies born to less than enthusiastic parents who may have seriously considered abortion some time during the pregnancy. Your reasons for any abortion in the US do not have to pass any sort of bona fide test.

Was wondering what became of these 'people'.Does anyone know if it was real or a sick stunt?

I saw yesterday that the public had voted to keep the baby.

BUT they said they had never intended to abort anyway. They were only trying to promote debate!

Jimmy you own Mugggle an apology, making nasty personal remarks like that. Attack the post, not the poster.

Although its totally sick, not least because she's already 17 weeks etc and setting up whole website, it does seem ok here to ask strangers for advice about unplanned pregnancies and whether to continue.

Someone posted about a surprise pregnancy, happily married with 3 kids already - looking for support as she was thinking of a termination.

Thats not at all the same thing.

shocking

Bonnie-I never said anything nasty

I agree with Mugglewump. An unborn baby has, as against its own mother, no rights until birth. Until birth, it is effectively a parasite - that which lives off its mother. If it is truly believed to be a viable being, then rather than criminalise or stigmatise late abortion for whatever reason, why not simply induce labour at the point at which the woman chooses not to have the baby? After all, if the baby is viable, it ought to be able to survive outside of its mother's womb. However, the resulting issues of death, mild to severely disabled babies etc, treatment and care of which will be left up to the state, would create such a huge financial burden that it will never be mooted as an option.

And yes, I say this as a mother myself. It's the cold, hard biological truth of the matter.

For what it's worth, I knew from the moment I heard about the poll that it was a pro-life stunt, and it makes me terribly sad that the Arnolds have chosen to go about emphasising their point in this way. Then again, it's their choice - hopefully, people are intelligent enough to know better than to fall for it.

Shocking, im stunned- to do a voting poll on whether their baby lives or not is disgusting, it should be mum and dads choice, not half the nation, disgusting, for one if pregnancy goes ahead, HTF will baby feel when old enough?

Its go to be a joke surely, if not then, adoption is only hope for baby, at least baby will have heathly minded parents

"What an nice person you must be" etc? I call that nasty, implying that a persons view on abortion sums up their personality.
Have another look.