What happens if they miss their goal by a thosand? Or two thousand? How do you decide that? How sad.

So, if you give them money you are basically supporting the idea of a welfare state. If you don't, you are supporting abortion.

The cognitive dissonance for a conservative must be life threatening.

We're pregnant and if you don't give us $50,000, we'll sell our baby to a gay couple.

Also, I am the descendant of tribal kings in Nigeria and have millions in a secret account there. If you'll just send me $5,000 for fees and incidentals as well as your bank account number, I'll transfer it to you.

Actually, they need $1 million.

The birth and time off is what costs a few tens of thousands.

People who have kids - or don't - for money reasons ... shouldn't be parents.

If money means that much to you, you can't afford to have kids. Period.

It's a scam. It's just like with that dude and the rabbit.

I had a thought like this awhile back. I was going to make a page offering not to fill my lesbo womb with a child for the next two years if I could make 50k on the site.

I figured I could get some gay-haters to fork up some cash that I could then use to fund my insemination two years later. (I wasn't planning to try for two years at the time.) We're all winners! Praise Jesus!

@2: These are willful donations, and therefore, not "basically supporting the idea of a welfare state".

Damn it! Why didn't I think of that? And I could do so much with $50 thou.

They should have the baby, name it Butters, and sell it to Paris Hilton as her new replacement pet!

Sh*t. They have NO IDEA how much it is really gonna cost and the time it will take to raise a child. They aren't committed period and really don't want the kid. Money won't make them want the baby more. Dumb shits. Bizarre.

Wish I thought of this...

Did you read the "terms and conditions" of donating? After agreeing that you will never know who they are, won't try and find out, won't get a tax write off - you agree to "forfeit $25,000 per violation of these terms". Would this money go to a fund for the next time they fuck irresponsibly?

Brilliant!

It's like that old MAD Magazine cover "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" taken to the next step.

Pay for our baby or we'll abort! That's a novel strategy you won't hear from a financial advisor. But isn't this extortion?

I may sound like an idiot here, but if someone were to find out that this is indeed a scam, would this "couple" be in any sort of legal trouble? I've never heard of this sort of thing, but I would hope that they would have to pay back all of the morons who donated money. (Then again, if you're stupid enough to donate to them, perhaps you deserve to be out the cash. I just don't like the idea of these assholes profitting).

This is absolutely amazing, and I applaud the ingenuity of the 12-year old in his parents' basement who has spearheaded this projects. Well done, young sir, well done.

It's just like the immortal words of Jerri Blank on Strangers with Candy:

"Babies don't cost money - they make money! Especially the little white ones."

So there's no mechanism in place for refunds if their goal is not met, and the terms of donation strictly prevent finding out who you just wrote a check to? It's a scam.

If it works, expect to see it repeated ad nauseum.

I clicked on the "make a donation" tab just to see what happened. It kicked me over a to PayPal with the message: "This recipient is currently unable to receive money." Either this is a complete joke or someone's on to them...

Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot. So, assuming they are telling the truth, say they raise $49,000. They abort and are up $49,000? I should totally do this! Only I'll threaten to abort or be a single mom! That will really open people's wallets!

Is it just me, or is it equally frightening to think that this is real as it is to think it's a scam?

I need to go take a shower.

This is totally the abortion debate in this nation distilled down to one wonderful, wonderful scam. I hope this is forwarded to National Right to Life and all the rest, and that they blow fifty grand on these guys. I also hope that some GOPer jumps on this and starts proposing a $50,000 check to everyone who gets knocked up.

Here's the best part of the site, in a FQ section at the bottom of the page:

"What happens to the money if you end up aborting? - If we have an abortion, we will donate 100% of the money we receive to a national, recognized, legit charity dedicated to helping people in our situation out. Probably a pro-life group. "

So, if they have an abortion, your dollars will go to a 'pro-life- group. Gee, I wonder who they're targeting?

Hey Will in Seattle @ 4:

I totally disagree. If you are not having kids because of money issues, it actually speaks WELL for one's ability to be a good parent once the money does (hopefully) become available. It shows an ability to think critically about starting a family, which should be a pretty fucking sober undertaking, with no illusions about the difficulty and expense of raising kids.

While this couple is doing something deeply questionable on a moral level, and 50K is obviously not enough money ("saving for a college fund?" 50K will barely pay for the first couple years of the kid’s life, never mind college), their cold logic on the money issue is laudable. Are you not tired of reading about yet another poorly planned family, holding down multiple jobs and still unable to make ends meet? Really, this 50K is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the amount of public money they'll eventually use.

One has to provide for one's offspring. If you don't feel like you can support them, don't have them. Period. Too many people think "love will get me through," but the reality is that food costs money, diapers cost money, doctors cost money, etc. In this society and the social norms we have collectively agreed on, having a kid when you can't afford to buy them what they need is, in my view, a form of child abuse.

In my opinion--and assuming this whole thing isn't a scam, which obviously is the likeliest scenario--they should put the kid up for adoption. I don't buy this whole "she doesn't believe she can give it up" for adoption thing. Tough shit, you know? If you can't afford it, and you feel uncomfortable aborting it, it's a way better option than asking for a crass, inadequate handout.

I'm gonna start using this ploy for all my biological needs.

It comes down to this. I'm hungry. Donate $200 to my lunch fund, or I will have to starve myself to death.

Here's what we're up against. I have diarrhea. If you don't give me $1,000 in toilet paper money I will never wipe my ass again.

This is the long and short of it. I haven't had sex in months. I'm trying to raise $5,000 for a whore. Otherwise, I will have to rape the cantaloupes at your local Safeway store. Anything you can give would be appreciated.

It's probably wrong as well by christian standards, but I do enjoy thinking these people are sucking big bucks out of fundy pockets.

Yeah....I want to be born into a family who throws a telethon to keep me from being shit-canned.

#19, Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot. = brilliant!

#13 That was National Lampoon.

It's too bad adopting American children is fashionable in Hollywood today. Angelina and Brad are 4 or 5 kids short of fielding a softball team.

Twisted thought it may be, I really do love the idea of guilting pro-lifers into ponying up cash for the raising of the children they're so adamantly insistent upon forcing someone else to carry to term. (Although, as pointed out, a more reasonable demand would be something like $300,000, at least.)

Thanks Monkey!

This is sexy, something both pro-choice and pro-life people can get all worked up over morally.

Their math and logic is totally fucked anyway. Nothing about $50,000 will make you a good parent, and renters with unreliable cars can be great parents.

They should just skip the abortion and agree to a suicide pact.

>we need $50,000. That’ll give us the down payment on a decent house, ... cover any medical bills (she’s uninsured)

I must have missed the memo that says you can't effectively raise a child while renting an apartment. Also, if the baby is uninsured, chances are the parents are too, and if you don't have the kind of job that has insurance benefits, you probably can't afford a house (even without a kid).

prank or not, the sense of entitlement is appalling. If you needed a house and a college fund before you could breed and parent effectively, there'd be next to no babies born in SF, NYC, seattle, etc.(except to those power couples making 6 figures)

"Are you not tired of reading about yet another poorly planned family"

I am. That's why people should learn about the newest technology in contraception: CONDOMS!!!!!

I want to know why I can't just pay $200 for them to have the abortion.

@34 - except that many pro-lifers don't want people using birth control, either.

Which gives me an idea: Hey, nutty Catholics! Give me $100K and I'll stop using birth control! Save my oh-so-sacred sperm and pay up!

Callie @19... Lima.Oscar.Lima. I am going to name my next dog "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" thanks to you.

@23 - I said if they are that obsessed and concerned about money, they are not the kind of people who should be parents.

What part of reality don't you understand?

And, FYI, I was born with a rattlesnake in my crib in Texas (true story) and raised in an apartment in NYC until I was something like 2, so you can bring up kids anywhere.

38 comments and no one's mentioned Save Karyn, the woman that got people to donate tens of thousands of dollars to pay off her credit card bills for her?

Also, it's too bad the FBI wouldn't look into this if notified, as it's not an obvious scam.

Gawker's onto them - turns out it's a student at Pitt who's tried this type of thing before. Sorry, not hostage fetus.

Yeah, I have to agree with the people who support this approach on the larger principle. It reduces pro-life attitudes to a simple "put up or shut up," which is entirely appropriate IMHO.

Great. There's a dog out there that won't be getting it's needed surgery money now.

If UW's willing to help the RIAA witch hunt its students, then Pitt should have no problem outing the perpetrator of this scam to the FBI Internet Crimes unit and/or relevant authorities.

Gomez @ 39,

I don't recall that gal threatening to abort/commit suicide if people didn't pay off her cards. Didn't she just ask for donations?

@35 I'm with you

I'd much rather think this was a scam. The time to think about whether you can afford to have a baby is before you get pregnant--and then, if you can't, you need to use birth control consistently. Once you're pregnant, it's a question of morality (and I believe abortion can be the moral choice in certain situations). Putting a price tag on whether a child will be born, and then using it to threaten people, is just fucked up.

Either something's wrong with my browser, or helpmybabylive is down altogether. They (He? She?) ran off with the twelve and a half grand. Laughing.

This is totally fucked up... If you don't have children because of money issues, that means you only need a excuse not to have them. you don't want them. period. Of course money makes everything easy but it cannot be your excuse. sorry. my parents had no money and raised two children......so? they wanted children, had them, and did the best they could.
And this IS A SCAM!!! I should do it, get some money and travel around instead of working all day long for my money! ooopss...they could also work and get a salary to raise a child! oh well, maybe they did not think of that possibility? I would most definitely recommend these two to have an abortion.

There was a similiar webpage last year, possibly the inspiration for this one. The page owner claimed to be short at the end of the nine months and to have aborted. If nothing else it was amusing for the ridiculously offensive dead fetus art using everything from pig fetus parts to red paint and barbie dolls.

It's a moneymaking scam. Assuming they even have an actual pregnancy, 50k is not going to make a person a responsible parent, or a family of three financially healthy.

Cost to raise a child born in 2007 through highschool:
--$1 million

Scamming people out of $50,000:
--$10 (the cost of a domain name)

Putting a child up for adoption:
--Free

Using gullibility and humor to point out the hypocrisy of the right-to-life movement:
--Priceless

Cost to raise a child born in 2007 through highschool:
--$1 million

Scamming people out of $50,000:
--$10 (the cost of a domain name)

Putting a child up for adoption:
--Free

Using gullibility and humor to point out the hypocrisy of the right-to-life movement:
--Priceless