This article describes the controversy surrounding a Yale University art student, Aliza Shvarts, who told the campus newspaper that she had repeatedly inseminated herself artificially and then induced abortions as part of her senior thesis. The controversy has created massive reverberations throughout academe, especially in the already hotly contested arena of academic freedom. The project, which she said was designed to explore the relationship between art and the body, drew a firestorm of criticism from all along the ideological spectrum. The episode at Yale has prompted questions about what constitutes legitimate academic work and how far universities should go in giving voice or providing a platform to students who express outrageous and offensive opinions. Proponents of academic freedom argued that Yale not only should have refused to bow to outside pressure to cancel the exhibition of Ms. Shvarts's work, but also should have used the exhibit as a tool to create a different sort of discourse on the value of free expression, even in cases when what is said or displayed is offensive.