Pro-Life Groups React With Dismay to Yale Student’s Fake Abortion Art

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 17, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Life Groups React With Dismay to Yale Student’s Fake Abortion Art

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 17
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading pro-life groups reacted with dismay after learning that a Yale art student successfully duped the nation on Thursday with claims of an art project involving repeated self-induced abortions. The groups said Yale officials should have stopped the ruse earlier and added it was offensive to women.

Kristan Hawkins, the director of Students for Life of America said she was surprised the student newspaper would have published an article leading to the Internet hoax and that Yale officials allowed it to happen.

"I am appalled that Yale University would allow a student to use the tragedy of miscarriage and abortion as a practical joke and then call it ‘art,’" she told LifeNews.com.

Hawkins said the hoax likely brought significant grief to women who are victims of real miscarriages and mourn for the babies they lost.

She said Aliza Shvarts’ publicity stunt "has inflicted serious harm to the women of this country who have experienced the pain of miscarriage."

While Yale officials have made it clear Shvarts’ art project is a ruse and the alleged abortions never occurred, Feminists for Life president Serrin Foster told LifeNews.com that doesn’t mean there aren’t unanswered questions from the incident.

Foster said “ethical questions remain about displaying this student’s art project and the impact the story may have on women who have experienced miscarriage and abortions.”

She said the abortion art hoax is the second incident involving Yale students — pointing to a previous episode involving mock abortions by Yale Medical Students for Choice.

She told LifeNews.com the acts of the abortion advocates “illustrate a callous disregard for women, their bodies and their children."

David Corry, the senior litigation counsel for the pro-life law firm Liberty Counsel, also commented on the case.

He told LifeNews.com, "If this had been done with animals, even unborn animals, Yale would have immediately understood the inappropriateness of the creation and their display of the ‘art.’"

"Yet they are blind to the intentional destruction of innocent, non-consenting human life in the name of art. How much more lost can you get?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Foster said it would be better for Shvarts and others who use shock tactics to make points about abortions to instead focus on the real concerns of pregnant and parenting students.

“Feminists for Life prefers to focus on addressing the unmet needs of women,” Foster said.

Related web sites:
Students for Life of America – https://www.studentsforlife.org
Feminists for Life – https://www.feministsforlife.org
Liberty Counsel – https://www.LC.org