Blogger admits tale of Trisomy 13 baby was a hoax
June 12th, 2009From the Chicago Tribune, AP/Chicago Tribune:
An Illinois woman has admitted that she misled thousands of readers of her anti-abortion blog by concocting a story about getting a prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 13 and carrying her child to term.
Becca Beushausen, 26, of Mokena, Ill., had been writing for months about her feelings about the fake pregnancy, and then wrote that she had given birth to a baby that survived for a only a few hours. That post drew nearly a million hits, but readers were tipped off when someone noticed that the “baby” featured in a photo on Beushausen’s website was really a lifelike doll.
When reached by the Tribune on Wednesday, Beushausen admitted the hoax.
“I know what I did was wrong,” she said. “I’ve been getting hate mail. I’m sorry because people were so emotionally involved.”
There’s no evidence that Beushausen benefited financially in any significant way or committed any crime.

