Abortion addict writes book

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American 'abortion addict' reveals she terminated 15 pregnancies in 17 years

A self-confessed abortion addict has revealed how she had 15 terminations in 17 years in an extraordinary act of rebellion against her controlling husband.

Irene Vilar, 40, claims she was unable to stop herself conceiving children - or from seeking a termination once she realised she was pregnant.

The cycle - which began when she was 16 - and her turbulent marriage drove her to such depths of despair that the pregnancies were interspersed with several attempted suicides.

Now a successful literary agent with two daughters Loretta, five, and Lolita, three, Miss Vilar has turned her experiences into memoir Impossible Motherhood: Testimony Of An Abortion Addict.

She reveals the procedures were a combination of a misguided quest to distance herself from a tragic family life and her dysfunctional relationship with her first husband - a 50-year-old Latin American literature professor who she met at the age of 16.

'We could be a couple as long as I relinquished my desire for children,' she told the Los Angeles Times.

Miss Vilar, who lives in Denver, Colorado, described her first husband Pedro Cuperman as a 'disturbingly handsome man' who claimed 'families are nests of suffering' and children were incompatible with freedom.

At 34 years her senior, he professed to prefer young women because they were 'unformed... unfinished, with not too many wounds'.

Their relationship spanned 11 years. During that time, Miss Vilar, whose own mother had committed suicide, repeatedly 'forgot' to take her birth control pills.

She became pregnant on 15 occasions and, after feeling an initial wave of joy, became terrified she would lose her husband.

The outcome would be another abortion and a complicated emotional collapse fuelled by both relief and despair.

'Of course, this did not mean I wanted to do it again and again,' she said.
'A druggie also wants to stop every time.'

Miss Vilar is originally from Puerto Rico, a region with a relatively high abortion rate and stringent anti-abortion laws.

Most abortions that are carried out in the region are considered 'unsafe' by health authorities, which estimates that up to 5,000 women in the region die every year.

The literary agent says access to legal abortion in the States saved her life because she would have found a way to end her pregnancies regardless.

Unsurprisingly, there are many who disagree. The publication of her book has sparked a storm of anger from campaigners on both sides of the abortion divide.

Some have called for Miss Vilar to be jailed.

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, said: 'Her story is just so tragic.

'It really underscores everything we always say in the pro-life movement - that abortion is part of a very sad story for women.'

Miss Vilar's own emotions are rather more complex. 'Abortion exists everywhere, legal or not,' she said.

'The majority of pro-choicers - and I don't blame them - are somewhat confused.

'My feeling was that I let women's rights campaigners down. They risked their lives to give me this, and I abused that right.

'But thanks to that right, I'm alive.'

Miss Vilar's explanation for her actions stems from her Latin American background.

She is the granddaughter of Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, who left her own daughter with relatives as an infant and moved to New York.

In 1954, Lebron and three other nationalists shot at the US House of Representatives, wounding five congressman.

She was convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and was jailed for 25 years before she was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

While Lebrón was in jail, her daughter and Miss Vilar's mother Gladys Méndez jumped from a moving car and died two days later.

Her husband had been driving while her tiny daughter had made a pathetic attempt to hold her mother back.

Miss Vilar believes her mother's death was prompted by a combination of being abandoned by Lebrón, a difficult relationship with her husband and an unnecessary hysterectomy at the age of 33.

'If there is something that is intersecting across generations - my grandmother, my mother and me - it's the issue of control,' she said.

'I chose a very private drama to show my problem of control, my mother chose a personal one, not as intimate as mine, and with my grandmother, it was the ultimate political control.'

The manuscript for Impossible Motherhood was rejected 51 times, before finally being published by Other Press.

Miss Vilar married her second husband in 2003 and now lives with her two daughters and two stepchildren. She is planning a new memoir on motherhood.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...#ixzz0Tpymi1T3




How disgusting!

[ksammon]

Crazyyyyyyyyy

[amanda]

sorry, this isn't appropriate material for the board. we don't allow discussions of abortion.

[~Fabulousity~]

whooooooooooa!