Having had two abortions and a miscarriage, Penelope Trunk was certain she didn't want another child.
So when the company boss realised she was losing a baby during a board meeting, she chose to share her relief with 20,000 people on Twitter.
She cheerily announced that she was relieved because it would spare her the trouble of going through with a planned abortion.
Her message read: 'I'm in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there's a f*****-up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin.'
The 'tweet' was relayed around the world within hours, with angry bloggers calling the divorced mother-of-two callous and uncaring.
But Miss Trunk, 42, chief executive of internet career advice firm Brazen Careerist, said it was a 'public service announcement'.
'It got people talking about the taboos of miscarriage and unwanted pregnancy,' she told CNN.
'I have no regrets. I actually thought that having a miscarriage at work was no big shakes.
'It seems like everyone in the whole world would prefer a miscarriage over an abortion - even the Pope. It's no different to me saying what I had for lunch.' She added: 'I am not really sure why people are offended. To those who don't want to know, what would I say? Don't log on.'
Miss Trunk, who fell pregnant in August, had booked a termination in neighbouring Chicago because of a three-week waiting list in her home state of Wisconsin
She did not reveal what she did after realising she was having a miscarriage.
She said: 'To accuse me of a cruel disregard of those women whose hearts are broken when they lose a baby is wrong.
'When I had my first miscarriage I was inconsolable. The difference was I desperately wanted that baby.'
The message was met by a storm of outrage, with more than 600 comments posted on Miss Trunk's blog.
One read: 'Everything you wrote smacks of inauthenticity and mocks the complex, conflicting and often overwhelming feelings that pregnancy and loss can evoke.'
Another said: 'To tweet about something that devastates other women you found relief. You are a poor excuse for a human being.'
And Kathleen Parker, a writer for the Washington Post, said Miss Trunk trivialised 'not only the miscarriage but what little remains of our humanity'.
But she did win some support, with another comment reading: 'You're shining a light into areas that many share but go mostly unexposed.'
Miss Trunk said the message caused her to lose about 70 of her 20,000 'followers' on Twitter.
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