Online abortion vote a stunt, couple admits

PUBLISHED ON

November 24, 2010

The Minnesota couple asking people to vote about whether they should abort their child has said they never intended to have an abortion at all.

Frankly, I was waiting for this.

According to a CNN article, husband Peter Arnold said he wanted “to stimulate conversation about the politically charged subject”:

Orthodox. Faithful. Free.

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Arnold told CNN he bought the domain name “birthornot.com” before wife Alisha became pregnant about four months ago. He said he had been mulling the idea “for some time,” adding that his wife is pro-choice but agreed that abortion was not on the table for them.

“We chose our words very carefully,” Arnold told CNN, insisting the site was not a hoax even though there were never any plans to accept the vote results if abortion won.

“A lot of people elect representatives based on this issue alone, yet nothing happens, nothing comes of it, nothing changes.” he said, adding that the couple called the baby “Baby Wiggles” to give people more to think about.

Arnold says the intent was not to deceive people. But he should know better; actions are what we must judge — and there’s nothing the public hates more than to be duped.
Arnold’s wife has now lost her job over this and I doubt they will find much sympathy.  Hopefully the entire thing will teach them some important lessons before taking on parenthood.

Author

  • Zoe Romanowsky is writer, consultant, and coach. Her articles have appeared in “Catholic Digest,” “Faith & Family,” “National Catholic Register,” “Our Sunday Visitor,” “Urbanite,” “Baltimore Eats,” and Godspy.com. Zo

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