Writer: My abortion ‘was the best decision of my life’; I’d rather have a dog than a baby

Life Site News ^ | 3/12/2012 | Ben Johnson

[IbJensen]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 12, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – American Idol judge Steve Tyler and his then-girlfriend still regret her abortion. So does former Britney Spears backup singer Kelly Clinger. So do millions of other famous and anonymous women across the country and around the world.

Not Amanda Chatel, a self-described “selfish” New York-based freelance writer. In an online article posted on the website The Gloss on Friday, she claimed she had an abortion in 2005, calling it “the best decision of my life” and writing that she prefers the companionship of her Jack Russell terrier to motherhood.

Chatel left her “very liberal” family and moved to New York City to become a writer. “I wanted a life that sparkled,” she told the New York Post. Within months, she was pregnant but could not believe her diagnosis, because she “drank too much, smoked too many cigarettes, too much pot and had also dabbled in a few other recreational items.”

Despite her fiercely “pro-choice” upbringing and her resolute decision to abort her child – supported by the baby’s father – she began to feel differently about herself. “I was all of a sudden dirty. I was a slut. I was disgusting,” she wrote.

The idea that she was “carrying something unwanted, unloved and a burden to my life and my future” wore her down. “I hated myself for thinking something that was part of me was so repulsive,” she wrote.

She proceeded to research what 10-week-old babies looked like, “torturing” herself by asking, “Did it have hands? Did it have eyes?”

“The nights leading up to my abortion, I’d lay in my bed with my hands on my stomach apologizing” and calling her unborn child by name. Still, she never saw her baby as more than “just cells.”

She claims she had an abortion on Holy Saturday 2005, adding her mother could not be with her because she could not “explain to my Catholic grandmother that Easter is canceled because my mom needs to run to NYC for her daughter’s abortion.”

How does she feel now?

“My abortion is something that never really crosses my mind at all, and in the brief moments that it does, I feel almost guilty that I don’t feel guilty about the decision I made seven years ago,” Chatel writes.

If she had become a mother, she states she would have missed out on other life experiences, like being in a cafe in Paris suffering “a necessary and deliciously inspiring heartbreak.” She would not “write for The Gloss or live in NYC or have my Hubbell.”

Hubbell, her Jack Russell terrier, was a gift from her parents in the wake of her abortion.

“Hubbell is my baby,” she wrote. “Hubbell is the age my child would be this year had I not had my abortion.” She tattooed his name on her arm “as a reminder that sometimes the most difficult decisions end up being the best.”

The author, whose Twitter handle is @AngryChatel, told the New York Post she was dedicated to remaining childless. “I am selfish!” she admitted.

“My sister, who’s two years younger, is married and has two kids,” she said. “I just look at her life, and it’s really my worst nightmare.”

Chatel is shutting down her low-traffic blog to concentrate on freelancing for such outlets as The Gloss, Untapped New York, Jewcy, and Green Shoelace.

Reflecting on her abortion, she wrote last Friday, “It was not a decision I wanted to make, but hell, it was the best decision of my life…I would not have it any other way.”

At least one detail of her story is out of place. Amanda claimed the date of her abortion, March 27, is “ingrained in my memory no matter what I try to do about it,” adding it “was the Saturday of Easter weekend.” But March 27, 2005, was Easter Sunday.

If authentic, her remorseless reaction would represent an additional deviation from the norm. Last September, the largest meta-analysis of abortion data, involving more than 877,000 women, discovered abortion led to a 155 greater risk of attempted suicide, as well as greater substance abuse and depression. A 2009 study in New Zealand found 85 percent of post-abortive women suffered a negative emotional consequence as a result of their abortion.

[momtothree]

“Who would want a child of this beast in our world?”

Thousands of couples would have given this woman’s child a good life. The baby would have been truly loved, cared for and been seen as precious. The author did say one thing that was correct... she was selfish. Her selfish nature denied a human being life and a couple the joy of raising that baby into adulthood.

[RightOnline]

I wouldn’t fluker if you held a gun to my head......

[refermech]

I was actually a lot like this woman.(I’m a man) I swore I’d never have kids but due to a strange twist of fate the kids(Twins)arrived. I haven’t had a moments rest since then! But it’s amazing to be involved and watch them develop. They turned 10 today. Happy birthday Jonathan and Michelle!!

[fatnotlazy]

The time to decide whether or not to have a child is BEFORE you have sex, not after the baby is conceived. If she didn’t want a baby, she should have used contraceptives or better yet, kept her pants zipped. She isn’t a pioneer, a liberated woman, a icon for “women’s rights” or whatever. She’s just plain stupid, selfish and lazy. And because of her lack of responsibility, an innocent life is snuffed out.

I wish her Jack Russell would bite her in the butt.

[varyouga]

I’d say “not guilty” but I’m fairly sure you got the wrong girl. Here she is:

I also found this little nugget while searching. She’s around 34 and it sure doesn’t sound like the “best decision of her life”.

She was pregnant, and wouldn’t be able to hide it much longer, so she was letting all of her patients know. She’s due at the end of June and plans to be on maternity leave for two to three months, but would be available for phone sessions.

I did what society and past experience had taught me is appropriate, and gleefully congratulated her. Then, within milliseconds, burst into tears and cried through the rest of my session…and well after I walked out the door, too. It wasn’t the best of timing.

In the days before my session, I’d briefly broken a four-month run of “no Facebook” for all of 90 minutes. In that small amount of time, I noticed how many old ‘friends’ were either pregnant or married. As I stared down my one-bedroom apartment and a life that lacked both a serious relationship and even the glimmer of a baby, I deactivated my profile once more, then proceeded to have the first big breakdown I had had in a long time. I felt completely alone.

MY THERAPIST IS PREGNANT AND I HATE HER FOR IT

[UCANSEE2]

Thus, an unemployed lefty justifies her abortion because a baby would have interfered with her boozing and drugging.

So.... she's a SLUT.

[pgkdan]

The selfish b*tch doesn’t deserve the dog. The dog deserves better!

[fullchroma]

She doth protest too much. Sad story all around.

[Redleg Duke]

I agree! Sluts like her should not procreate. They should live in shitholes like New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and be urbanites until they die of drug overdoses and rid the planet of their ilk.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I wish the author’s mother had thought the same way.

[Linda Frances]

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness. Isaiah 5:20

[Yaelle]

I don’t think more and more folks feel this way. I think truly it’s less and less since the 70s. But it is still in the ether that murder is a “woman’s reproductive right” and just a “choice.”

This woman could have carried the child Gd made and given him up for adoption and then gotten her dog. We lie to girls that that is not the one right thing to do if you create a baby you don’t want.

And believe me, when we were still in a world where a heartstrings tugging song like “love child” (Diana Ross) could be written, there were a lot less women risking unwanted pregnancy.

[cookcounty]

"This is evolution at its best.

Who would want a child of this beast in our world?

There's a LOT of self-hatred in the political left.

[NCC-1701]

This is the slut in question:


This isn't her:

[Mr. C]

They’re NOT women, they’ee skanks and should be regarded as such.

[liberalh8ter]

She looks like the average lib. Shouldn't be hard to find the father of the murdered baby; he'll be missing an arm.

[MNDude]

Odd how when I first saw the Asian woman I felt a little surprised and suspicious so I went to look it up myself. When I saw the real one I thought immediately “Yup, that’s her alright!”

What is it with liberal women and ugly thick glasses anyhow?

[moovova]

Well said. Thanks.

[Sgt_Schultze]

She's likely a much better "owner" than she would be as a parent.

Something tells me her "ownership" skills might have come in handy if she had been born in the 1820's American south.

[mware]

The idea that she was “carrying something unwanted, unloved and a burden to my life and my future” wore her down. “I hated myself for thinking something that was part of me was so repulsive,”

Better for the little one to be back with God, than in the hands of that repulsive woman.