Heroine of the anti-abortion lobby is exposed as a fantasist
Social worker admits she fabricated story about carrying terminally ill baby
A suburban "mother-to-be" has infuriated the right-to-life community in America by admitting a blog she had written for more than two months tracking her pregnancy with a child diagnosed with a terminal disease was nothing more than a fantasy, albeit one that had attracted an online audience of a million or more.
Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from the outskirts of Chicago, almost unwittingly hit a nerve in a country where the battle over abortion rights still rages.
Last month, a doctor in Kansas, George Tiller, was gunned down while serving as an usher in church. Mr Tiller was one of only a small number of doctors in the United States willing to perform late-term terminations in circumstances where the mother's life may be at risk. Even the most fervent of pro-life groups condemned the killing of Mr Tiller and reiterated their opposition to violence.
In Ms Beushausen, throngs of conservative Christians and right-to-life advocates thought they had found a living symbol of their deepest-felt beliefs: a woman who was committed to bringing to term a pregnancy she knew would give her a child – April-Rose – who was destined to live perhaps only weeks, days or even hours.
The blog, a well-written and heart-rending account of her pregnancy that was peppered with Biblical quotes and featured a Christian music track, took off in ways she now says she had not expected. Other mainstream Christian websites, many dedicated to the right-to-life cause, began channelling their readers to it. Fans of the blog began sending gifts – pairs of booties, blankets, hair bows, even money – to Ms Beushausen, who online called herself only "B".
The entry describing April-Rose's delivery informed the blog audience that the child had died hours after delivery, as her mother had feared. But "B"– she sometimes also referred to herself simply as "April's Mom" – did manage to post a picture of herself holding the infant swaddled in blankets. By then a cyber-celebrity in the world of anti-abortion activists, Ms Beushausen's post on that day lit up with nearly one million hits.
However, in her determination to sustain the illusion, Ms Beushausen had posed for the photograph not with a baby, but a plastic doll.
One reader spotted the deception and word of the deceit quickly spread. Even though Ms Beushausen moved quickly to take down the website and accounts on Twitter and Facebook, she was quickly identified.
The response among her legion of followers has ranged from fury to sympathy. For her part, Ms Beushausen acknowledged the fraud to her local newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, last weekend, and put up a last post offering her apologies. She has revealed that while the entire story was made up – the pregnancy never happened – she was using the blog in part to deal with the real sadness of having lost a baby boy four years before.
"I lied to a community of people whose only intention was to support me through this time and that is wrong, and for that I am sorrier than you could know," she said in the final post last Sunday, adding that she actually had lost babies "more than once" and had lied because she was "dealing with unresolved pain".
Ms Beushausen has said that the gifts she received have now been given to charity. "I don't feel the need to exploit either the Christian community or the sanctity of human life any further," she went on. "Forgive me and understand on some level that I am a broken woman.
"I do understand why people are mad, and so does she," Anna Beushausen, her sister, acknowledged this week. "I see pieces of her life in there. She is so remorseful, and she is in immense pain."
One of the first to become suspicious of the events described on the site – littleoneapril.blogspot.com – was Elizabeth Russell, a dollmaker from upstate New York. "I have that exact doll in my house," she said. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam." She then started a counter-blog to expose the fabrication. For her trouble, she was bombarded with hate mail.
Jennifer McKinney of Minnesota, who has written her own blogs about a difficult pregnancy, is not impressed by the belated mea culpa. "To be honest, I think she is far from recognising the true gravity of the situation," she said.
But Raechal Myers of Tennessee, who sold T-shirts to raise money for Ms Beusheusen and sent her hundreds of dollars has no regrets. "She's someone who needed love and attention," she says, "which we gave her".
Beccah Beushausen's baby blog
The 'pregnancy'
"Everything that has happened so far seems to be setting the stage, so to speak, for a miracle. I am carrying April, still. Not knowing what will happen next. I have another appointment on Thursday and that one will hopefully bring concrete answers. Though, as much as I say I want them, I don't think I will want them when they come.
I have been completely humbled to get emails, comments, prayer requests, etc. Humbled that God is using me and April to bring Him glory."
The 'birth' (described by a friend, 'Rachael')
"B is having frequent contractions now and is up and moving around. Active labour is only just beginning and B has a lot more work to do before April comes.
B is pushing. April is doing well so far and will be here soon. Lord, be near.
April is here! Praise Jesus!"
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited



Comments
The report states that this woman is a social worker. This implies a position of trust & responsibility.
This woman is obviously very disturbed.
I would seriously question whether or not she is fit to hold a position of responsibility until she's received professional help.
However it's dressed up, what she did is very morbid if not down right sick.
In my experience social workers are some of the most unstable and disturbed people around.
As a profession it seems to attract a disproportionate amount of people with mental health issues, presumably because they feel an affinity with the people they have to deal with.
I worry about her being able to act as a social worker - and I worry that she did not make it clear when she received her first bootie that she was writing fiction not fact. She was exposed by others and then confessed.
They believe in Creationism and teach it as "science" in schools.
They believe OJ Simpson is innocent.
They believe there are WMD in Iraq
They believe Osama bin-Laden is still in Afghanistan waiting to be caught
They believe Israel hasn't got 300+ illegal nuclear warheads
They believe Bill O'Reilly is a good journalist and Fox presents "fair & balanced" news.
In America the "truth" is who mouths-off the loudest and has the best lawyers.
A nation of lies.
where its always some other bunch of psycotics , going postal on the world ,
the very handle that i use apart from signalling cleary the distance i observe vis a vis the poo in a bag british state ,
is a scottish nationalist denial of the legitimacy of the british state ,
"nice" amerikkkans on the other hand are always trying to persuade anyone that will listen thats its the N R A , the G O P . e t c , that is to blame , if you scratch the surface ,however , you will find that they also subscribe to most of the chauvinisms that make their nation so widely hated around the world .they are just better at disguising their greedy contempt for anyone who isnt amerikkkan
You can claim that not all Americans believed these lies, but the lies always get their job done. 0.5m Iraqis dead - due to yankee lies. Yankee credibility in the world is knocking on zero. Cried "wolf" waay too many times to be believed any longer. No-one likes a liar, and yanks always lie.
The last part of your post ignores the complicity (assuming you're in the UK) of ourselves and our parliament in Britain in making the '03 war legal. Does that make us Brits liars, too? Are all Brits "chauvinistic", "greedy" et al because of the actions of a government?
Sadly, this story is convenient ammunition to those apologists for abortion and that is Beushausen's greater sin.
What seems to have angered her previous supporters is that she lied to them so as to extract both financial and psychological aid and by doing so has exposed them as gullible fools who believe everything they read is true as along as it supports their own prejudices. Surely these people should be happy that no actual child was born only to suffer and die in pain, instead of complaining about their own stupidity?
You were a mere 'cluster of cells' once. On the other hand, I am prepared to accept you may still be 'non-sentient'.
Regards,
Yes, we all were clusters of cells once. And if we had been aborted we would not exist. So what? I fail to see where this rather obvious tautology is taking us.
Nothing wrong with America. It's the godists who are dragging the country back to the dark ages.
I still find it irnonic that a doctor was 'gunned down' for his actions by a group who claim to be 'pro life'.
That' sAmeric afor you, land of the free
What a crock of sh*t.
"But my husband can't be the father..."
"Hey, we have this new treatment called Abortion but its still new and experimental"
"Anything doctor so my husband doesn't find out"
"OK come back Tuesday and we'll do it then"
"MMmmm mmmmmm"
"What's that noise Doctor?"
"It seems to be your foetus making some noises, let me listen"
"MMmmm mmmmmm"
"What is it Doctor"
"Good grief, he says he is to be a child of miraculous virgin birth fathered by God."
"That abortion stuff ought to be banned"
"I'm sure your child or his followers will see to that"
These idiots still believe that the Republicans will stop abortions when the facts from the US Government clearly indicate the opposite. Abortion was most prolific under Reagan and Bush sr.,
the Clinton administration reduced abortions significantly, and even though Bush jr was supported by right wing religious fanatics twice, he made absolutely no difference.
Republicans also claim they are for individual choice, then introduce the Patriot Act restricting civil rights.
Bush jr claimed to be deeply religious but was totally unchristian, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people for corporate greed.
The Republican propaganda machine continually lies to the American people to promote big business.
The greedy health insurance lobby is the latest example. Watergate, WMD, Cheney in a wheelchair are other examples.
A perceptive argument for the right of a foetus to be aborted in certain circumstances, can be found in the book "Soliloquies of Concern & Action in a mixed-up World", by R.Shayler. This concise book can be found and freely down-loaded from www.getfreeEbooks.com. Alternatively just google in the title.
Now you've confused me. How exactly do you impose life on something which is already living? Besides, what gives you the right to decide what the foetus's 'interests' are and why its life may be less valuable than anyone else's?
Holocausts occur precisely when people decide that some other branch of humanity is 'less than human' In years to come (assuming we get that far) future generations will look at this one and ask how seemingly good people allowed the evil of abortion to occur.
By this logic, what gives ANY parent/adult/human the right do decide what a child's best 'interests' are?
This is really disturbing. But it's also simple::
1) Beccah, whether she lost children she was carrying or not, deserves our sympathy and support for her problems.
2) She shouldn't have done it. By writing the blog she may have taken support from someone who needed it.
And that's all. Nothing else matters.
Beccah, see your doctor, and get some help (assuming of course that you can afford to - I would not live in the United States of Inadequate Health Care.