The surrogate mother who refused to have an abortion

SAN FRANCISCO - May 6, 2014 - PRLog -- In March last year, Crystal Kelley hit the news headlines when it was revealed that the sponsoring parents for the child she was carrying had demanded that she have an abortion - had even offered her $10,000 to have that abortion - but that she had refused. Instead she fled to Michigan, where surrogacy contracts are unenforceable, in order to give birth to her child.

The demand that she have an abortion was based on an 'abortion clause' in her contract that said that the sponsoring parents could demand that she have an abortion if the early scans suggested that the child would be born with significant physical abnormalities. In the case of Crystal Kelley's baby, the early scans suggested that the baby might be suffering from brain damage, had a deformed heart and a cleft lip, and even a missing stomach. The doctors further suggested that with so much damage already identifiable, it was likely that there would be more hidden difficulties they had yet to identify.

As it turned out, the baby's stomach was 'missing' because it was on the other side of her body and the heart was not as damaged as first thought, although she did indeed have a cleft lip and a malformed ear.

Against the background of there having been an estimated 50+ million abortions in America since 1973, Crystal Kelley has just co-written a book of her experiences with author Elisabeth Collins. The book details the issues any surrogate mother faces over and above those of a mother having her own child, and how the pressures spiralled out of control once physical abnormalities had been discovered in the baby. It is a very well written account, sympathetic to all concerned, although Crystal did grow very nervous of what the sponsoring parents would do to ensure she had an abortion.

The paperback is now available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Within-A-Surrogates-Journey/dp... and as an e-book on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Within-Surrogates-Crystal-Kell..., with an average 4.9 out of 5.0 reviewer rating.