Empowered by the story of Melissa Cook, a surrogate mother facing pressure to abort one of her triplets, another surrogate mother is seeking help for very similar circumstances.
The anonymous Southern California woman is a surrogate who is pregnant with triplets, according to the New York Post. She told the news outlet that a parent of the unborn children is pressuring her to abort at least one of them.
After reading about Cook’s situation in the news, a friend of the anonymous woman contacted the Center for Bioethics and Culture, a watchdog group for surrogacy exploitation, and asked for legal help to save the unborn triplets, the report states.
“This woman was asked to submit to an abortion. She’s asking for legal help,” Jennifer Lahl, director of the center, told the news outlet. “That’s why Melissa Cook’s story was so empowering. When one woman tells her story, it encourages other women to come forward. There’s strength in numbers.”
As LifeNews previously reported, surrogate mother Melissa Cook told The Sun that she is facing immense pressure to abort one of the triplets. The California woman is 17-weeks pregnant. She found out about the triplets at about eight or nine weeks, and the biological father has been pressuring her to abort one of them since then.
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The babies were conceived using the father’s sperm and a 20-year-old donor’s eggs, according to the report. Cook’s contract with the biological father from Georgia says she would be paid $33,000 for the pregnancy, plus $6,000 for each additional child, the report states. By not aborting the third baby, the father’s lawyer warned Cook that she could lose all the money and have to pay to take care of the children herself.
Cook sent a response to the Georgia father, writing: “The doctor put in three healthy embryos. The chances were high they were all going to take. You knew I was 47 years old. If you knew you only wanted two babies, then why put in three embryos?”
Cook has four of her own children, including a set of triplets, according to the report. When her story was first reported, Cook appeared to be wavering under the biological father’s intense pressure.
“I have to reduce,” Cook said. “I’m scared. I don’t want to suffer.” But at another point in the interview, she said: “They are human beings. I bonded with these kids. This is just not right.”
Since Cook’s story was first published earlier this week, people have been volunteering free legal assistance and even adoption of the third triplet, according to the Post. Others are collecting donations to help her and the babies. The Center for Bioethics and Culture also is helping Cook fight for the lives of all of her unborn triplets.
