Yale: Student's abortion artwork a hoax
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - April 18, 2008 Aliza Shvarts described the project in a story Thursday in the
Yale Daily News. She said she artificially inseminated herself "as
often as possible" while taking herbal drugs to induce
miscarriages, the story said.
The account swept across blogs and media outlets before Yale
issued a statement saying it investigated and found it all to be a
hoax that was Shvarts' idea of elaborate "performance art."
"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," said Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky.
But in a guest column published in Friday's student newspaper,
Shvarts insisted the project was real. She described her "repeated
self-induced miscarriages," although she allows that she never
knew if she was actually pregnant.
"The most poignant aspect of this representation - the part
most meaningful in terms of its political agenda (and,
incidentally, the aspect that has not been discussed thus far) - is
the impossibility of accurately identifying the resulting blood,"
she said.
"Because the miscarriages coincide with the expected date of
menstruation (the 28th day of my cycle), it remains ambiguous
whether ... there was ever a fertilized ovum or not. The reality of
the pregnancy, both for myself and for the audience, is a matter of
reading," she wrote.
Shvarts told the newspaper she planned to display a work that
consisted of a cube lined with plastic sheets with a
blood-and-petroleum-jelly mixture in between, onto which she would
project video footage of herself "experiencing miscarriages in her
bathroom tub."
University officials said Shvarts' project included visual
representations, a news release and other narrative materials. When
confronted by three senior Yale officials, including two deans,
Shvarts acknowledged that she was never pregnant and did not induce
abortions, Klasky said.
"She said if Yale puts out a statement saying she did not do
this, she would say Yale was doing that to protect its
reputation," Klasky said.
Shvarts told the paper her goal was to spark conversation and
debate on the relationship between art and the human body.
Cullen MacBeth, the newspaper's managing editor, declined to
comment Thursday. Editor-in-Chief Andrew Mangino could not be
reached for comment Friday because his cell phone was not taking
messages and he did not immediately reply to an e-mail message from
The Associated Press.
Shvarts could not be reached for comment. Her telephone number
was disconnected and she did not respond to e-mails or a knock on
the door at the address listed for her in the campus directory.
Groups for and against abortion rights expressed outrage over
the affair.
Ted Miller, a spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, called the
concept offensive and "not a constructive addition to the debate
over reproductive rights."
Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of
Connecticut, an anti-abortion group, said his anger was not
mitigated by the fact that Shvarts may never not have been
pregnant. "I'm astounded by this woman's callousness," he said.