(15 Abortions): An addiction that only motherhood could cure

Washington Post ^ | October 30, 2009 | Manuel Roig-Franzia

[Publius804]

An addiction that only motherhood could cure

Irene Vilar tries to explain the pathology that led her to abort 15 pregnancies

The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention.

Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise."

Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would somehow make them disappear, would confirm their utter impossibility.

That Irene Vilar embraces the role of motherhood is a grand incongruity, a mind-blower. She has just published a precariously nuanced, intellectually ambitious and unnervingly frank memoir titled "Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict." In the book, Vilar writes about a "shameful" period in her life -- before she became a mother -- when she says she underwent 15 abortions in 15 years.

[originalbuckeye]

Sorry, I don’t buy that she regrets her abortions AND she still believes in abortion. I don’t think she has a conscience. I think she wants to sell books.