CHICAGO — The woman's story about giving birth to a child diagnosed while in the womb as terminally ill hit a nerve.
Every night for the last two months, thousands of abortion foes from across the nation logged onto a blog run by the woman who said she was unmarried, pregnant and identified herself only as "B" or "April's Mom." People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy. They e-mailed her photos of their children, shared tales of heartache and redemption and sent letters of support and gifts to an Oak Lawn, Ill., post office box.
As more people were drawn to the blog -- which included biblical quotes, antiabortion messages and a soundtrack of inspirational Christian pop songs -- advertisers were queuing up. By the evening of June 7, when the woman blogged that April Rose had survived a home birth only to die hours later, her website had nearly 1 million hits.
There was only one problem with the unfolding tragedy: None of it was true.
The baby in the photos, swaddled in white blankets, was a doll.
"I have that exact doll in my house," said Elizabeth Russell, a doll maker from Buffalo, N.Y., who had been following the blog. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."
The following day, people vented their anger on dozens of Christian parenting websites.
"She needs to be exposed and held accountable," Russell said.
Sensing that people were close to establishing her identity, "April's Mom" raced to delete her website and Twitter and Facebook accounts. But the online community already had identified her: Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from Mokena, Ill.
Reached by the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Beus- hausen admitted to the hoax.
"I know what I did was wrong," she said. "I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved." There's no evidence that Beushausen benefited financially in any significant way or committed any crime.
Still, Russell said, she does not understand why anyone would create such a tale and prey on people's emotions.
Beushausen said she really did lose a son shortly after birth in 2005.
She started her blog in March to help deal with that loss and to express her antiabortion views, she said.
She had ony expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked.
"I've always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear," she said.
