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A boat offering abortions

The prochoice group Women on Waves plans to dock a boat off of the coast of Morocco and offer abortions to women who want them.

Michelle Goldberg, at the link below, is good about teasing out the complications that might ensue, as well as the improbability of women running the publicity gauntlet to get on board and have an abortion. The main person behind the abortion-on-the-waves concept, Rebecca Gomperts, states that the event is not so much about directly meeting a demand for abortions in a legally restrictive country. Instead, the group is trying to raise awareness about unsafe abortions in countries where abortion is illegal. A fundamental premise of the international abortion rights movement is that women will have abortions regardless of legality. Abortions should be legal, therefore, so as to be offered and performed under safer circumstances.

The group also wants to raise awareness about 'medical' abortions-- those not performed using a surgical procedure like vacuum aspiration, but done through the use of an 'abortion pill' like misoprostol, which induces miscarriage. Their view appears to be that misoprostol is a preferable method of abortion, as one can self-abort (taking the pills at home) and have an easier time obtaining the pills than finding a doctor to do a safe surgical abortion.

I imagine Women on Waves has done its homework, but boat-off-the-coast activism makes me a little nervous. Women on Waves has lots of information on its web site about medical abortions, but do they know enough about the cultural, educational, and legal context of Morocco to confidently encourage women to undertake self-abortions? What if there are complications, for example? Will the miscarrying woman who encounters problems be comfortable going to a doctor/hospital that she trusts-- if there is such a person?

Careful and thoughtful campaigning to provide women access to family planning resources and safe abortion options early in pregnancy, including medical abortion, is one thing. Sailing in and conducting a publicity stunt is something else.

Article in The Daily Beast: Abortion at Sea

Website for Women on Waves

UPDATE: The Moroccan government is not happy: USA Today article

UPDATE II: From CNN: Morocco navy escorts abortion vessel out of port, group says

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