In the latest twist in the crazy story surrounding the BirthorNot web site a Minnesota couple posted online to have the public vote whether they should have an abortion, Alisha Arnold is now lashing out at her husband.
Upset that her husband has garnered the media attention for admitting the web site was a hoax, she placed a new post on the blog today emphasizing her pro-abortion views and saying she lost her job because of the web site.
“Recently we were quoted by CNN as admitting that terminating the pregnancy was never on the table. This is simply not true,” she says. “My husband may wish that that was the case, but our early disagreement about this pregnancy is what led us to start the website in the first place.”
Arnold claims CNN, which originally reported yesterday afternoon that Pete Arnold said the web site was a hoax, despite earlier claims it was legitimate, and the couple never considered an abortion, got the story wrong because it didn’t include her perspective.
” I clearly stated this to the reporter at CNN but my opinion was not included in the article that was published. Although my intentions about this pregnancy may have changed over the course of the last few months I definitely didn’t start out feeling confident about proceeding with it. I was very scared and anxious that I wasn’t healed emotionally from the previous miscarriages to be in the right frame of mind to continue an unexpected pregnancy,” Alisha Arnold says.
“I’m the one that lost my job because of the media attention that this website has received and yet my opinions and statements seem to be discounted in favor of my husband’s. Since I’m the one carrying the baby it seems to me that this is a terrible oversight on the part of responsible media professionals,” she adds.
Arnold says she doesn’t believe the unborn child is a human being worthy of protection until viability.
“Pete and I are on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to our beliefs about abortion … to me until the baby can survive without the mother (otherwise known as viability) it is not a feasible life,” she continues. “So although my feelings about this pregnancy and Baby “Wiggles” have changed during the time that the website has been up and I don’t believe I could go through with an abortion now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in a woman’s right to make that decision.”
She also fires back at pro-life advocates who say her original self-centered comments about not wanting to disrupt her life as a reason for the abortion were selfish.
“You may think that I have selfish reasons for considering abortion, but anyone who has experienced doubts about whether they want to have a baby surely knows that it’s not an easy decision to make. The fact that I have had major complications from the start just made me more wary and unsure. Even this time around I had a threatened miscarriage which could possibly have made the whole abortion issue moot,” she writes.
Although it appears Arnold doesn’t plan to carry through with an abortion — which 75 percent of the more than one million respondents say she should have, she aggressively defends her “right” to have one.
“Many people have talked about my husband’s conservative/libertarian leanings and have made much of his pro-life and conservative posts on other websites. But when it comes to abortion I am the one that wears the pants in the decision because in the end it would be me going through the procedure,” she says. “Even though my husband’s opinion and beliefs matter to me, I, as the one carrying the baby have the final say about my body and our unborn child.”
“Abortion is a serious issue and my opinion and position shouldn’t be ignored. Your comments have helped to ease my fears and although I am still cautious about allowing myself to become attached, I am feeling more optimistic about moving forward,” Alisha writes.
Jill Stanek, a pro-life blogger and nurse who has been following the ongoing soap opera of the abortion vote web site as well, says it makes sense now why so many were confused as to whether this was a pro-abortion or a pro-life publicity stunt.
“Well, no wonder the true intentions of the couple putting their preborn baby’s life up for a vote were difficult to decipher. Turns out Pete Arnold is pro-life and his wife Alisha is pro-abortion,” she wrote in response to Alisha Arnold’s comments.
“Obviously Alisha had bonding issues with her baby due to her 3 previous miscarriages, which is understandable and sad. That plus the fact she’s pro-abortion and her husband is pro-life fomented the development of this ill-conceived scheme,” Stanek continued.
Stanek says pro-life people can “rest assured” that Arnold won’t have an abortion despite the “votes from the cyber-Colosseum mob urging Alisha to abort her baby.”
She concludes: “Now we just have to pray for the safety of “Wiggles,” Alisha’s continued bonding with him, and the security of their marriage. I’m also hopeful that through this experience Alisha will be converted on the Life issue.”
