Yale University art major and former high school valedictorian Aliza Shvarts drew controversy with a senior project allegedly chronicling a nine-month succession of self-induced and self-aborted pregnancies. According to an April 17, 2008 article in the Yale Daily News, Shvarts inseminated herself via sperm donors, then induced miscarriages using abortifacient herbs.

The multimedia piece makes use of supposed bodily fluids from Shvarts' miscarriages (preserved in Vaseline and displayed with plastic sheeting), as well as video footage of miscarriages in progress. The project will be on exhibit from April 22 to May 1, 2008, at the Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall on Yale's New Haven, CT, campus.

Student activist leaders at Yale and elsewhere, both pro-choice and pro-life, have denounced the art project, with the National Right to Life Committee calling Shvarts a "serial killer." According to Shvarts, the piece is not intended for shock value, but to inspire discourse. "I think that I’m creating a project," Shvarts said, "That lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."

Yale officials revealed late on April 17 that the project was a hoax. Shvarts explained, in a statement rich in the language of postmodernist theory, that the truth behind the project was inherently unknowable, and/or could only be determined by the individual observer -- i.e., that she had faked it.

The Dean of Yale, Peter Salovey, is reportedly "appalled" by the project. He and the School of Arts Dean Robert Storr stated that the individuals who knew about the project had made some "serious errors in judgment" and would be disciplined. The University did not allow the art project to be displayed during the scheduled exhibit.

1. Yale senior with abortion art project
2. Graduated high school as valedictorian
3. Attended The Buckley School, a private institution in Sherman Oaks, CA
4. Refers to sperm donors as "fabricators"
5. Exhibit dates: April 22 to May 1, 2008
6. At Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall on Yale campus

• Yale University: School of Art official site
• The Buckley School: Shvarts and Gleason to Speak at Commencement (June 9, 2004)
  • School newsletter previewing Shvarts' high school valedictorian speech.