Aliza Shvarts, a Yale University student claims to have artificially inseminating herself "as often as possible" so that she could become pregnant and then use herbs to cause abortions and used the blood from those abortions to create "art".
This story has created an outcry on campus, on the Internet, but there is a problem with the story that has been reported in different countries.
She faked it.
It isn't true according to what she has now told Yale officials.
Within hours after the story ran today in the print and online versions of the student newspaper, blogs were full of livid reactions, including horror that so many fetuses were apparently aborted, revulsion at the graphic nature of the piece, shock that someone would risk her own health in such a way, and disdain for art and academia in general.
She told classmates that she artificially impregnated herself as often as possible, the used herbs to induce abortions. She told them she filmed herself in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from the miscarriages.
Late this afternoon, Yale University spokesperson, Helaine S. Klasky, issued a statement:
Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. 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.
She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.
Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.
When I first ran across this story, it was a report from LifeNews.com, an article that as of the writing of this piece has not been updated to reflect that the fact that the claim by Shvarts is now being denied.
It wasn't until I was doing further research that I found the articles showing this was just a big hoax.
The problem now seems to be that multiple news organizations still have the original articles reporting this art project, without an update showing it was all faked by Shvarts, evidenced by United Press International and Thaindian News, just to show a couple.
Perhaps there is a bigger lesson to be learned from this controversy that isn't really a controversy.... maybe news outlets should verify before reporting and make sure they update or correct a story when it has been proven wrong.
That is, if her denial now is the truth or if her original story was....
.