Women On Waves’ Abortion Boat May Be Permanently Docked
Posted by: Jessica Wakeman
Filed in:
news
1:00PM, Tuesday July 28th 2009
The Women on Waves boat, a vessel which sailed to international waters outside countries where abortion is illegal and terminated pregnancies, may be docking for good.
A little backstory: Founded in 1999, WoW is a Netherlands-based charity with a boat that docked 12 miles off the coast (which constitutes “international water”) of places like Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, where women must rely on illegal abortions to end their pregnancies. WoW provided contraceptives, pregnancy testing, information about STDs, and prescribed the abortion pill (RU-486) to women who came on board. (WoW never actually performed surgical abortions on the boat, although it has had permission since 2008 to use a converted vessel to terminate pregnancies up to 12 weeks.)
But recently, Rebecca Gomperts, a physician and the organizer behind WoW, told a Dutch publication that her government has changed their laws regarding distribution of the abortion pill. Unfortunately, WoW can no longer distribute RU-486 without fearing legal action. The boat won’t actually be docked, but will sit in a museum in Rotterdam, possibly as an exhibit on feminist history.
Gomperts is now throwing her support behind Women On Web, an “online medical abortion service” where women who live in countries where abortion is illegal can get a prescription for the RU-486 abortion pill. A woman answers 25 questions online, which are reviewed by a doctor for inconsistencies, and is asked to voluntarily contribute 70 euros for the pills, she said.
But Women On Web is still not a sure bet for women who want a safe pregnancy termination—even though the abortion pills are mailed in a discreet package. Gomperts said Ireland apparently screens all packages in customs and has been stopping the pill from getting to its intended destination. [RH Reality Check, NRC Handelsblad]
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tabby
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 12:10 pm: [report]
Oh Ireland, you backwards country that I love. You are a very good example of what happens when you write an actual specific religion into your constitution. I can only say that I am grateful that I only ever had “false alarms” when living there.
spark
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 12:53 pm: [report]
is it just me, or is this photo incredibly insensitive and offensive?
don’t pro-life people shy away from the whole murdered-baby-in-a-jar image?
william.paul
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 01:05 pm: [report]
Actually, that would be a murdered baby in a bottle.
mividavegan
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 01:30 pm: [report]
Who said it was murdered? The bottle could represent a mother’s womb.
GreenAura
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 01:36 pm: [report]
@ frisked: Actually, it’s been my observation that Pro-Lifers commonly use disturbing images that are far worse than the one above (which isn’t even disturbing in my book)to conjure up feelings of remorse and disgust for women that recently went through abortions. In other words, it’s scare tactics.
Coral
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 03:03 pm: [report]
@GreenAura: Well yes, Pro-Lifers do use images similar, but Pro-Lifers do not use such images to make women feel bad about themselves. It is simply a stark truth/awareness of what the fetus is and that abortion is a serious decision.
Sonic
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 03:51 pm: [report]
@ Coral: I disagree that the images are unintended to make women feel bad; when the entire image includes captions such as “Abortion is murder” underneath or a picture of a fetus with limbs all bloody, it becomes clear to me that the message is that the pregnant woman is a murderer and needs feel shame and guilt.
Back to the article, it is always a disappointment to me when women’s reproductive rights take a step backwards.
thegreatsquirrel
wrote on July 28 2009 @ 05:33 pm: [report]
... or maybe the image is nothing more than a clever play on the idea of a ship in a bottle… but I guess that’s only if you don’t like to get your panties in a wad.