when unrestricted abortion isn't enough: the back-up plan

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Aug 10, 2010

 An Australian Olympic athlete, Keli Lane, faces charges that she murdered her own baby. According to prosecutors, Lane was driven by her ambition to play water polo in the 2000 Olympics.

So when Ms Lane became pregnant five times between 1992 and 1999, she allegedly resolved to avoid the responsibility. Her first two pregnancies were terminated. Two babies were secretly carried to term and adopted out, in 1995 and 1999.

In between, in 1996, she bore a child. But motherhood was not part of the plans, and Lane was back in social circulation, attending a wedding party with her boyfriend, just hours after leaving the maternity ward. Authorities charge that she disposed of the infant.

Now you might ask: In the contraceptive age, why would a woman who doesn’t want a baby become pregnant five times in a decade? The Sydney Morning Herald explains:

Although Ms Lane was taking the contraceptive pill, she drank heavily and would keep up with the boys.

We already know that many woman think of abortion as the back-up plan, for when contraceptives fail. The case of Keli Lane raises another question: What’s the back-up plan when a pregnant woman who rejects motherhood can’t or won’t have an abortion?