Aborted Tale: Mom Neither Single Nor Poor

A week ago, Britons were swept up in the tabloid tale of a poor single mother who was about to abort one of her twins because she couldn’t afford to raise two more children.

Then came the revelation that the abortion had already taken place. On Thursday, the story took another twist when the Daily Express newspaper reported that the woman was neither poor nor single, but a middle-class professional married to a company director.

Meanwhile, an anti-abortion group tried to dissuade a second woman from aborting one or both of her twins, offering her financial help to raise them. She and her husband already have two children, and say they can’t afford two more.

“We’ve told them to give us 72 hours and we’ll see what we can raise,” said Nuala Scarisbrick, a trustee of the charity, Life.

The same group offered money to the first woman last week, only to discover that the abortion already had been performed.

Scarisbrick said her group was not trying to “buy babies,” but only wanted to help people in need. Life received appeals for financial help from other expectant mothers after the publicity surrounding the first case, she said.

Meanwhile, a British woman carrying eight fetuses to term in a tabloid-sponsored saga is following her doctor’s recommendation to stop giving media interviews, her doctor said.

Mandy Allwood, 31, has rejected medical advice to abort some of the fetuses - the product of fertility treatment - to improve the survival chances of the others. The more babies she bears, the more money she will get from the News of the World.