Yale University Student's 'Abortion Art' Stirs Debate

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 21 Apr 2008 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

A Yale University student who previously told the student newspaper that she had artificially inseminated herself several times and took drugs to induce miscarriages for an art project told school officials Thursday that the project was faked, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the initial report in the Yale Daily News created an "outcry" on the Internet; a protest on the Yale campus; and debates over academia, art, medicine and morality (Kinzie, Washington Post, 4/18).

The Daily News on Thursday reported that the student, Aliza Shvarts, said she had inseminated herself "as often as possible" over nine months and subsequently took herbal substances that are known to induce abortions (New York Times, 4/18). According to the Post, Shvarts told classmates that her work would include videos of her miscarriages, a sculpture incorporating her blood mixed with Vaseline and wrapped in plastic, as well as a spoken piece describing what she had done. Shvarts told the Daily News that she wanted to promote a debate about the relationship between art and the human body. She added that the intention of the project was not to scandalize anyone (Washington Post, 4/18).

Yale spokesperson Helaine Klasky in a statement issued Thursday said Shvarts stated that she "did not impregnate herself" and that "she did not induce any miscarriages." Klasky added, "The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body" (New York Times, 4/18).

Cullen MacBeth, the student newspaper's managing editor, declined to comment Thursday, and Shvarts could not be reached for comment, the AP/Google.com reports. Ted Miller, a spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the concept of the art project is offensive and "not a constructive addition to the debate over reproductive rights." Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, said, "I'm astounded by this woman's callousness." He added, "There are thousands of women in this country who are dealing with the pain of having had an abortion, with the trauma of having suffered a miscarriage" (Eaton-Robb, AP/Google.com, 4/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.