http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/yale_abortion_as_art.html

What's the Problem With Yale Student, Aliza Shvarts, and "Abortion as
Art"?
by Rich Deem

Introduction

Abortion as Art?

Senior Yale student, Aliza Shvarts, decided to do her senior art
project on abortion, using her own body to produce the "art." She has
been roundly condemned by both pro- and anti-abortion proponents.
Regardless of the question of whether the work amounts to art, why
would pro-abortion proponents complain about what she did. She did
nothing illegal, and since abortion is supposed to be a freedom worth
defending, her having done it several months in a row should be a
cause for the celebration of her freedom. Why doesn't anybody buy
that?

Rich Deem

Aliza Shvarts, Senior Yale student, decided to do her senior art
project on abortion. However, this was no ordinary art project, since
Ms. Shvarts artificially inseminated herself multiple times during the
fertile period of her cycle and then induced chemical abortions two
weeks later. A video chronology of the nine month "art" project, in
addition to a collection of bodily fluids are to be showcased next
week, if all goes as planned. Of course, pro-life proponents are
outraged, but surprisingly, pro-choice proponents don't seem to like
the "art" either. Does this make logical sense?
Pro-choice objections?

Although Ms. Shvarts says her project is about "abortion," the secular
articles tend to call it "miscarriages".1 This is technically
incorrect. A miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion, not man induced
one. So, we really are talking about induced abortion and not a
spontaneous miscarriage. Yale officials have called, the project,
"creative fiction," although Ms. Shvarts herself contradicted their
claim in her own article, published the next day in the Yale Daily
News.2 It is uncertain that Ms. Shvarts ever became pregnant, although
given the technique described, it would be unlikely that she never
became pregnant during the entire 9 month of attempts.

Ted Miller, a spokesman for the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice
America condemned the exhibition in a written statement saying, "This
'project' is offensive and insensitive to the women who have suffered
the heartbreak of miscarriage." However, Ms. Shvarts didn't really
suffer the "heartbreak of miscarriage," but induced her own abortions.
NARAL should be thrilled that Ms. Shvarts is exercising her "abortion
rights" without guilt. After all, abortion is legal and is even
included in the Bill of Rights!
Logical Error!!!

The main problem for NARAL and the pro-choice movement is that,
although they support abortion, they know it is evil. If abortion were
a good thing, then more abortion would be even better. Ms. Shvarts
would be applauded for doing good. However, it is clear that even pro-
abortion supporters know that abortion is evil, and the more there is,
the more evil it is. However, it seems to have taken an extreme
example of abortion in order to make them understand the reality of
what abortion is - evil.
Conclusion Top of page

The pro-choice stance of even the most radical pro-abortion
organizations shows that even they believe abortion to be evil. They
decry the intentional creation of life and subsequent intentional
destruction of such life. If NARAL really believed that abortion were
good, they would applaud Aliza Shvarts for exercising her
constitutional right of abortion.
Related Pages Top of page

    * Abortion - Life, Right, Choice?- Secular Arguments Against
Abortion (Abortion: Life? Choice? Right? - Secular Arguments Against
Abortion 440 KB MS PowerPoint file)
    * Science and Abortion - The scientific basis of the prolife
position.
    * The Law and Abortion - Why the law is logically inconsistent.
    * Modern Eugenics: How Abortion is Getting Rid of 'Undesirables' -
Abortion as a good way to get rid of minorities and poor people who
might have children (God forbid!) who commit crimes.
    * D & X (Partial Birth) Abortions - They are never medically
necessary
    * Do Fetuses Feel Pain During An Abortion? - A new scientific
study shows that cortical brain responses to pain occur in infants as
young as 25 weeks gestational age.

References Top of page

   1. "The supposed senior art project of the Davenport College senior
was a 'creative fiction,' a Yale official said Thursday afternoon as
students on campus and bloggers across the country expressed colossal
outrage over what Shvarts described as a documentation of a nine-month
process during which she claimed to have artificially inseminated
herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking
'abortifacient drugs' to induce miscarriages."
      Zachary Abrahamson, Thomas Kaplan and Martine Powers. 2008.
University calls art project a fiction; Shvarts '08 disputes Yale's
claim' Yale Daily News, April 17, 2008.
   2. "For the past year, I performed repeated self-induced
miscarriages. I created a group of fabricators from volunteers who
submitted to periodic STD screenings and agreed to their complete and
permanent anonymity. From the 9th to the 15th day of my menstrual
cycle, the fabricators would provide me with sperm samples, which I
used to privately self-inseminate. Using a needleless syringe, I would
inject the sperm near my cervix within 30 minutes of its collection,
so as to insure the possibility of fertilization. On the 28th day of
my cycle, I would ingest an abortifacient, after which I would
experience cramps and heavy bleeding."
      Aliza Shvarts. 2008. Shvarts explains her 'repeated self-induced
miscarriages' Yale Daily News, April 18, 2008.
   3. Samantha Broussard-Wilson. 2008. Reaction to Shvarts: Outrage,
shock, disgust' Yale Daily News, April 18, 2008.

http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/yale_abortion_as_art.html#l9Uy2...
Last updated April 18, 2008