Abortion as 'art' triggers shock, horror

Yale

A student at Yale University, who for her "senior art project" says she repeatedly artificially inseminated herself and then took abortifacient drugs to induce multiple miscarriages, plans next week to display her "art" – including blood from her own forced abortions – prompting reactions ranging from horror and disgust to suggestions of fraud.

"First off, I'm a liberal. I frequent WND to keep tabs on how people who disagree with me think. But even I was shocked, appalled and disgusted by this," wrote a WND reader.

"I won't describe it: You'll have to read it to believe it for yourself."

The story was reported in the Yale Daily News, which said art major Aliza Shvarts "wants to make a statement" at the school. Ironically, Yale was founded in the 1600s when colonial clergy led an effort to establish a training center "wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God maybe fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State."

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The student newspaper said that beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will display a project that documents a nine-month process in which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages.

Shvarts claims her exhibition will feature video recordings of the forced miscarriages along with preserved collections of the blood from the process.

Shvarts told the newspaper she wanted to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body.

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," she said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

What she did generate was shock.

"It is a gruesome and macabre display that, contrary to the 'artist's' assertion, was likely contrived because of its shock value," Laura Echevarria, a former spokeswoman for National Right to Life, told LifeNews.com.

""This is just unbelievably macabre. I mean, how does someone do this not only to their own body but to the lives she kept creating and then aborting. How do you lose your sense of humanity to do such a thing?" she said.

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The suggestion of fraud was raised by Yuval Levin, a contributor to the National Review blog "the Corner."

"Color me dubious about the Yale art project story," he writes. "In talking to a few knowledgeable docs this morning, the facts don't add up very well. Self-insemination of the sort she seems to be claiming is no easy feat, and 'herbal' abortifacients are extremely dangerous and not at all reliably effective. It's highly unlikely that these two improbable elements would both be carried off successfully multiple times, and with no side effects. It's more likely that her senior art project is to see how many people she can upset with a hoax.

"If it's a hoax, it’s an abhorrent and disgusting one," said Levin. "If it turns out to be true, it's of course all the more so and far worse. Either way, where are the adults at Yale?"

Echevarria had the same concern.

"Yale should be ashamed that it is allowing an 'art' project that will offend millions of Americans," she told LifeNews.com "Abortion is the deliberate destruction of human life. Putting that destruction on display as so-called art crosses a line and Yale should respond by pulling this project."

Alice Buttrick, an officer at Yale's pro-abortion Reproductive Rights Action League, told the student newspaper her group was not involved and had no official opinion.

Yale president Richard Levin declined to respond to WND's request for a comment.

The campus newspaper said the sperm donors were not paid for their services, but Shvarts said she required them to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases. She contended she was not concerned about the medical effects on her body.

The newspaper reported art major Juan Castillo said he was intrigued by the creativity and beauty of project.

"I really loved the idea of this project, but a lot other people didn't," Castillo said. "I think that most people were very resistant to thinking about what the project was really about. [The senior-art-project forum] stopped being a conversation on the work itself."

Shvarts said part of her goal was to push art into being a medium of politics and ideologies.

The newspaper said the display of Schvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall.

The student will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around the cube, the paper reported. Blood from Schvarts' self-induced abortions will be placed between layers of the sheeting, mixed with Vaseline to prevent drying and to extend the blood throughout the sheeting. Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. The videos, according to Schvarts, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.

Those particular plans raised the ire of David Codrea, a 2nd Amendment advocate who blogs at War on Guns.

"One could make the argument that the exhibit legally should be classified as hazardous medical waste, and without proper handling, storage and spill clean-up/disposal procedures, with training for affected staff and employees, it poses a danger to the public and to all involved," he wrote. "I wonder if Yale's risk management department was consulted?"

He said he had e-mailed Yale that the university's own guidelines state: "Programs implementing University policy have been established to protect the health and safety of students, faculty and staff and meet regulatory requirements that are required by OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health."

"For the record – has this event been approved … and have all appropriate regulatory conditions been documented as compliant?" he asked.

The newspaper said the official reception for the Undergraduate Senior Art Show will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 25. The exhibition will be on public display from April 22 to May 1. The art exhibition is set to premiere alongside the projects of other art seniors April 22 at the gallery of Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall on Chapel Street.

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