Tag Archives: illegal abortion

Unsafe Abortions Kill 70,000 Women Every Year

Jessica WakemanOctober 14, 2009 //

Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 women each year, according to a recent study of 197 countries by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute. The three-year study also found abortions are happening in countries where they are legal just as often as in countries where they are illegal—despite the fact that 40 percent of the world’s women live in places were abortion laws are strict. Said Sharon Camp, Guttmacher’s president:

”Legal restrictions do not stop abortion from happening. They just make the procedure dangerous. Too many women are maimed or killed each year because they lack legal abortion access.”

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Women On Waves’ Abortion Boat May Be Permanently Docked

Jessica WakemanJuly 28, 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.) Keep reading »