There has already been a lot of reaction among pro-lifers to the news that a Yale student, Aliza Shvarts, plans to display for her senior art project "a documentation of a nine-month process" during which she repeatedly got pregnant and took drugs to induce abortions on herself.
An article in the Yale Daily News also reports:
[Shvarts] said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.
Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, has issued a challenge to the major pro-abortion groups:
"I call on Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NOW and all other so-called pro-choice groups to condemn this. Abortion should never be trivialized as a matter of 'art.'"
It will be hard for them to do that, as these groups have been saying for decades that women should be able to have abortions for any reason at all.
In all honesty, for me personally, I'd have to say I'm not surprised by the news of this "art project".
After all, when a culture teaches that morality is something to be determined by each individual, and that there's no such thing as right and wrong, it shouldn't surprise us when someone actually says there's nothing wrong with something everybody knows is very, very wrong.
My other reaction to this news is one of deep sorrow and pity for Aliza Shvarts. I'm no psychologist, but if this isn't a cry for help on her part, I don't know what is.
Clearly, her actions are wrong. And clearly, Yale has a lot to answer for by not stopping her from—at the very least—putting her health in serious danger.
But I would say this: Please, please—resist the temptation to judge her (cf. Luke 6:37-42) and to say nasty things about her personally.
Instead, pray for her.
[Cross-posted at Generations for Life]
4 comments:
Excellent point - this is serious and goes beyond merely causing offense. She's hurt everyone on both side of hte abortion question. I encourage people to contact Yale and let them know this is unacceptable.
Director of undergraduate studies: Henk van Assen, 122 GREEN, 432-2608, art.dus@yale.edu
You make a good point because I judged her right away. I heard about it on the news this morning and I thought "no way is this real". Then accepting it, I thought "that girl is making a mockery of parenting". I guess I agree with you that we shouldn't judge her but it is so riciculous that this could even happen.
Nonetheless when I think about it my stomach turns.
ok, so not only is she making a mockery of parenting, it's just downright sad that this could happen.
Seriously I can't really pinpoint my feelings and quite frankly it would be just easier to judge her!!!
I first heard about this last night when my friend Carrie called me from Portland to ask if I had heard about it. When I said that I hadn't she told me to do a google search for "Abortion + Yale" and read it, because if she told me about it I wouldn't believe it.
Naturally, I was shocked.
Carrie asked me "What should we do?"
"Pray for her and for her lost children."
"But I hate her!"
"No, hate what she's done and you can find it in your heart to pray for her."
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