Women on Waves

Where Next for the Abortion Boat

Bibliographic Data

ID3972663
AuthorsRebecca Gomperts (0000-0001-5937-251X, Atria, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume10
Issue19
Pages180-183
Publication date2002-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReproductive Health Matters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0968-8080 • E-ISSN: 1460-9576
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1016/s0968-8080(02)00004-6
PMID12369324
OpenAlexW2075375470
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Women on Waves was founded to contribute to the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions throughout the world by direct action. Because national penal laws, including those governing abortion, generally extend only as far as territorial waters (12 miles), Women on Waves made plans to provide reproductive health services on a ship with a mobile clinic, including abortions, outside the territorial waters of countries where abortion is illegal. We went to Ireland first because it was nearby and there was a dedicated pro-choice community with immediate interest in and commitment to the project. Although we encountered problems that meant we could not do abortions, we were contacted by more than 300 women in five days and provided reproductive health information, contraception, workshops and information on where to obtain legal abortions in Europe. In many parts of the world an anti-abortion backlash is taking place. To safeguard our reproductive rights in the face of anti-abortion activities, it is crucial to recapture a pro-active, pro-choice role. Women on Waves helped to make visible the need for legal abortion services in Ireland, and the extensive class and other differences between women able to access abortions abroad and those who could not. We are currently attempting to resolve our status under Dutch law, but until women everywhere have the right to reproductive freedom, we will continue to make waves

Abortion · Abortion law · Backlash · Business · Environmental health · Family planning · Political science · Population · Pregnancy · Reproductive health · Research methodology · Unsafe abortion · Engineering · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Law · Medicine · Reproductive Health and Contraception · Reproductive Health and Technologies

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