Blog hoax captivates pro-lifers
A woman lies about her terminally ill baby and is heaped with prayers and praise
By Tracy Clark-FloryTopics: Broadsheet, Life News
When “B” found out that she was pregnant with a terminally ill child, she turned to God and the Internet for support. The latter was quick to respond: Thousands of abortion opponents flocked to her blog with prayers for her “miracle baby” and high praise for her righteous refusal to terminate. Web followers wept over her story, mailed gifts and hand-written letters, bought t-shirts to show solidarity and swapped deeply personal heart-wrenching stories. On Sunday, the young Chicago woman wrote that she had given birth to April, a beautiful baby girl, and shared photos of the precious newborn. Then she delivered some much-feared news: April died hours later.
The real tragedy, however, is that it was all a lie.
The elaborately crafted hoax quickly unraveled after “B’s” birth post. Reader Elizabeth Russell, a doll maker, tells the Chicago Tribune that when she saw the photos of little April, she suddenly realized: “I have that exact doll in my house.” The baby in the photos was a Reborn Doll, those homemade creations that look like real children preserved in wax. This bears repeating: “B” took photos of a creepily realistic doll wrapped in blankets and then made a black-and-white collage that included snapshots of a real newborn. She then pretended it was her soon-to-be-dead baby. (Check the photos here and here.) A blogger at “Random Ramblings of a Mom,” who “prayed for this little girl daily,” writes: “I noticed the babies in the [collage] were not the same baby and the baby looked fake, like a doll even.” Yes, indeed.
Word spread and “B” quickly tried to erase herself from the Web, but her true identity was revealed, nonetheless: Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker (of all things). When the Tribune called, she immediately admitted the scam and said, “I know what I did was wrong. I’ve been getting hate mail. I’m sorry because people were so emotionally involved.” (Interesting how in her mind the hate mail seems to take priority.) Beushausen claims she was emotionally involved, too: She says she began the blog as a way to cope with the death of a newborn son in 2005. The reader response to her posts became “addictive” and she couldn’t stop, Beushausen says. It sounds like she craved attention — to a degree that is deeply psychologically unwell. So, while I feel tremendous sympathy for the thousands of readers she exploited with her emotionally compelling soap opera, it’s hard not to feel a bit for someone who is so clearly damaged.
Since the scam was revealed just one week after Dr. George Tiller’s death, it immediately brings his patients to mind. After all, they were women who lived the real-life version of this fake story. They passionately wanted a child, but for devastating medical reasons chose to abort to save their own life or to prevent the baby’s suffering. If there is some common ground in the abortion wars, I would hope this would be it: The tragedy of losing a much desired child.
Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter and Facebook. More Tracy Clark-Flory.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
-
My crushing student debt
-
Pollution as ancient Chinese art
-
Chimp's blurry pictures to fetch six figures at auction
-
Can playing Dots on your iPhone make you smarter?
-
Print your own gardening accessories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Temple Grandin on DSM-5: "Sounds like diagnosis by committee"
-
Stop comparing everything to "Girls"!
-
Is killing a fetus murder?
-
New DSM, new debates over ADHD and autism
-
Berlusconi's parties featured women dressed as Obama
-
Should graduation ceremonies be multi-faith?
-
Federal government is letting us eat metal shards, pink slime
-
Photographed secretly at home: Is it art?
-
Obama pledges to end "scourge" of sexual assault in the military
-
My "truly remarkable" cancer breakthrough
-
I think this guy is stalking me
-
The illusions of advertising
-
North Dakota lawmaker: Blame Roe v. Wade for school shootings
-
Take the Pope Francis tour of Buenos Aires and be pontiff for a day
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Netflix's April Fools' Day categories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Slideshow: Nerd Obama
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Is Reddit censoring openly racist users?
Fidel Martinez, The Daily Dot
-
My "truly remarkable" cancer breakthrough
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
-
When the IRS targeted liberals
Alex Seitz-Wald
-
Krist Novoselic: My plan to fix Congress, curb obstruction
Krist Novoselic
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
Cannes: The 10 hottest movies
Andrew O'Hehir
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
-
Diane Gilman: Baby Boomers: A New Life-Construct -- From "Invisible to Invincible!" -
Susan Gregory Thomas: Why Divorced Boomer Moms Don't Deserve The Bad Rap -
British Nanny Offered An Annual Salary Of $200,000 -
Arianna Huffington: What I Did (and Didn't Do) On My Summer Vacation -
Vivian Diller, Ph.D.: Maybe Happiness Begins At 50




30 Places You'd Rather Be Sitting Right Now
Comments
39 Comments