“I have every intention of having an abortion, but I’m giving you a chance to stop it."

“How much would you pay to stop an abortion?”

A woman has been accused of blackmailing pro-lifers and holding her unborn baby to ransom after putting its fate in the hands of the people.

The 26-year-old woman, who is seven weeks pregnant, has essentially offered pro-lifers the opportunity to save her fetus if they raise $USD1 million within 72 hours — the same time as the “cooling off” period pregnant women are forced to wait before stating they want an abortion and actually having an abortion in her US state.

If the target is reached, she will have the baby, put it up for adoption and the money will go into a trust fund for when the child reaches the age of 21, she says on her website.

If the full amount is not raised, donations will be refunded and she will go ahead with the abortion she has scheduled on July 10.

The graduate student says she will not keep any of the money for herself “so if I am to be vilified in this process, it can’t be for that”.

The woman, who remained anonymous, appears to be protesting against the restrictive abortion laws of her unnamed state, particularly the “unnecessary waiting time to get an abortion”, being the 72 hours women must wait after a consultation with a doctor.

In a post titled ‘How much would you pay to stop an abortion?’, she tells pro-lifers they have the opportunity to stop her planned abortion.

“I have every intention of having an abortion, but I’m giving you a chance to stop it,” she says.

“Mathematically this means that every one of the 157 million Americans that identify as pro-life needs to donate less than one cent to stop this abortion.”

The woman says she hopes to show Americans that pro-lifers care more about controlling women than the rights of the child.

“The backward direction this country is headed in terms of its treatment of women I feel is due in large part to the influence of the religious right disguised as the pro-life movement,” she says.

“The pro-life movement cares very little about saving lives and far more about controlling women by minimizing their choices in a wide variety of ways not the least of which is readily available reproductive health care.”

Unsurprisingly, the woman has been accused of blackmailing the public, holding her unborn child to ransom and running a scam.

But pro-choice advocate Dr Leah Torres says the ‘cooling down’ laws undermine the doctor-patient relationship and insults pregnant women by implying they are not smart enough to make the decision, news.com.au reports.

“Making them wait is traumatising,” Dr Torres says.

The woman will begin accepting donations on July 7, three days before her scheduled abortion.

For more on a woman’s right to choose, try these articles:

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Melbourne abortion clinic takes pro-lifers to the Supreme Court.

The country that just legalised gay marriage still don’t allow women to have abortions.

She’s 10 years old and pregnant. And she’s being denied an abortion.

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