Woman Had 15 Abortions Over 17 Years

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A woman who is a self-described "abortion addict" has written a book in which she details having 15 terminations over 17 years.

In her book called " Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict ," Irene Vilar, 40, said she got pregnant and had the abortions as a way of rebelling against her "controlling" husband who didn't want children, according to the Daily Mail.

From the age of 16 until 33, Vilar ended the pregnancies and also attempted suicide several times. She claims that her husband, a 50-year-old Latin American literature professor, told her that having children killed sexual desire. So she stopped taking her birth control pills as a way of defying him.

"But slowly, my days took on a balancing act and there was a specific high. I would get my period and be sad, then discover I was pregnant, being afraid, yet also so excited," Vilar said.

She said she carried out the abortions so that her husband wouldn't end their marriage, but isn't clear about whether he knew of them or not. "Of course, this did not mean I wanted to do it again and again ... A druggie also wants to stop every time," she added.

Vilar eventually left her husband after 11 years and remarried in 2003. She now lives in Denver and has two children and two stepchildren.

"Women have written memoirs about their anorexia or their bulimia, and they explain the best that they can what motivated their addiction or their behavior. I try to do the same in this book," she said.

Pro-life supporter Charmaine Yost of Americans United for Life told the Los Angeles Times that Vilar's story is "tragic." "It really underscores everything we always say in the pro-life movement -- that abortion is part of a very sad story for women," she said.

Vilar herself told ABC News that she was afraid of becoming an unintended symbol for the pro-life movement. "I just imagine the 'baby killer' and I could be a poster child for that kind of fundamentalism," she said.

Feminist author Robin Morgan said that many pro-choice supporters are feeling uncomfortable with what Vilar did, with some saying Vilar has abused women's right to choose. But Vilar said that access of legal abortions saved her life since one way or another, she would have ended all of the pregnancies.

The Guttmacher Institute reports that nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and 40 percent of them are terminated by abortion.