A married couple who live near Minneapolis- both of whom are 30- are seemingly crowdsourcing the decision of whether they should abort their baby or allow it to come to term and be born.
As Gawker points out, this is 99% likely not to be exactly as it appears. It has to be an attempt to draw attention to something, but exactly what the point is has not yet been revealed. The poll on the site, sponsored by PollDaddy, is currently leaning toward the “don’t abort” side, but when Gawker posted the tale, the results were skewed far more in favor of the “do abort” option.
Interestingly, the couple have not given any reasoning for what would be a relatively late-term abortion (20 weeks) other than that they are not sure they’re “ready” to be parents. Gawker broke down possible reasons the couple, Pete and Alisha Arnold, created the site:
- 1) It’s is an idiotic prank. Pete and Alisha are intent on becoming famous any way they can, and they’ve hit on an outrageous way to get media coverage. But if this all was a prank, wouldn’t they have gotten the word out before now? They’ve been blogging since September.
- 2) This is a pro-life stunt. Pete said he’s a non-practicing Catholic, while Alisha is a Methodist. Although the Arnolds describe themselves as political independents with Libertarian leanings, Alisha likes Glenn Beck on Facebook, and a Google search turns up an old pro-Bush comment Pete made on CNN. (Pete said he voted for Bush in 2000, but not in 2004.) Could this site be a confused parable to illustrate the peril of putting an unborn baby’s life in the hands of voters?
- 3) It’s true. Pete and Alisha are actually going to choose to have an abortion based on an Internet poll.
You can view the spectacle at the Arnolds’ website, BirthorNot.com. This isn’t the first time social media has participated in an abortion- a woman made headlines a few months back by live tweeting her medical abortion. What’s your take on the whole thing? Attention whoring? Performance art? Political statement? Could anyone possibly be considering a second-trimester abortion for the lulz? I’ll posit a theory touched on but not fleshed out by the Gawker analysis- this is to draw attention to later, elective abortions, with which many Americans are more uncomfortable than earlier or medically necessary pregnancy terminations.
[Gawker, BirthorNot]