November 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The couple behind the highly controversial “BirthorNot” website have announced that they have closed the online poll on the site. The couple had asked internet users whether they should abort their unborn child, or give birth.
The poll has received 2,008,039 votes as of closing, with nearly 78% of those who responded voting in favor of abortion, a dramatically different result from when news of the site first broke earlier this month. Earlier in November over 80% of voters had voted in favor of giving birth.
However, Pete and Alisha Arnold say that they will be analyzing the results for fraud: “We will be sending them off to a third party report wizard to have them analyzed and have the fraud removed.”
The couple wrote that they will be allowing two votes per IP address, and that addresses with more votes than that, when they weigh “heavily in one direction,” will be reduced to two votes.
Many have written off the site as a “hoax” after Mr. Arnold told CNN that he and his wife never intended to abort. Independent researchers had also discovered Pete’s propensity for posting on conservative websites.
“My intent is not to deceive people, but at the same point, I do want people to talk about this,” Arnold told CNN. “This seemed like a pretty good way to further the discussion, because people don’t ever seem to want to talk about it for real if there’s no name on it, no Baby Wiggles.”
However, the story became somewhat more complicated after Mrs. Arnold responded to her husband’s remarks, saying she is pro-abortion. While she said she is growing closer to the baby, and would probably not abort at this stage, Alisha said abortion was definitely on the table in the beginning – contrary to what her husband told CNN.
“My husband may wish that that was the case, but our early disagreement about this pregnancy is what lead us to start the website in the first place,” said Alisha. “I clearly stated this to the reporter at CNN but my opinion was not included in the article that was published.”
“Even though my husband’s opinion and beliefs matter to me, I, as the one carrying the baby have the final say about my body and our unborn child.”
Since launching the site, the Arnolds have posted occasional updates about the development of their baby, nicknamed Baby Wiggles. The last such post was on Nov. 20, when the Arnolds related that the baby was at 17 weeks gestation. They said that during their recent ultrasound the baby “was turning around a lot and waving arms (and hands) at us.”
According to the couple, Dec. 9th is the last day that they could legally have Baby Wiggles killed through an abortion. Originally they had said the vote would remain open until two days before then, so that they would have time to make their decision.