Frankie

In the late 1990s, Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician, was an
activist and doctor aboard the Rainbow Warrior – a Greenpeace
ship that conducts environmental campaigns and blockades on
the high seas. "I was sailing with Greenpeace to countries where
abortion is illegal, like Mexico and Guatemala,” she explains.
“And I heard so much suffering from all the women I talked to,
because they couldn’t access the service."

Trained as an abortion provider, Rebecca and a handful of other
activists decided to put two and two together: why not use a ship
to bring termination services to women in the estimated 25 per cent
of countries where they’re still forbidden?

Thus, Women on Waves – also known as ‘the Abortion Ship’ – was
born in 1999. It's an ingenious project that relies on a combination
of technology, innovation, legal know-how and sheer determination
to deliver reproductive justice to women who would otherwise have
no options. Dutch artist Atelier van Lieshout designed a portable
abortion clinic inside a retrofitted shipping container, which can
be strapped to boats registered in the Netherlands. Once women
are aboard, the ship is sailed 20 kilometres off the coast into
international waters, where medical abortions are provided under
Dutch law, rather than those of the local country.

But it isn't always that easy. The ship is a big 'up yours' to states
that restrict abortion, and that’s often how it's treated. In almost
20 years of conducting campaigns with Women on Waves, Rebecca
has discovered the extreme lengths some countries will go to to
stop women from boarding the ship.

"In Portugal in 2004, we couldn’t even enter the country, because
warships stopped the boat," she says. "The Minister of Defence
was an extremely right-wing Catholic – he acted on his own, and

the President was not amused at all. It was a huge debate in the

European parliament, because it was unprecedented that a ship

from another European nation was stopped by the navy, and not

allowed to enter the country."

Similar obstacles have prevented the ship from docking in Morocco

and Guatemala, showing how intertwined abortion is with other

aspects of the countries' ruling powers. This is the bleeding edge

of feminist activism, where women's rights are suppressed with

naked displays of military force.

"Abortion is not necessarily only about women’s rights. It’s really

about fundamental freedoms, and women’s bodies are a tool,"

Rebecca says. "What I always say is that in countries that lack a

rule of law – that are authoritarian or even dictatorships – the first

thing that goes is women’s rights and abortion rights. So, the ship

is actually a test for different countries: what is the situation of the

rule of law and democracy?"

It's also a test of medical technology. "Initially we set up the

clinic to do surgical abortions on the boat, but immediately after

the first campaign it was clear that was not going to work," she

says. Surgical abortions, which involve an operation to physically

remove the contents of someone's uterus, are complex and

medically demanding. They require special instruments and

a very clean, sterile environment. All of this is usually done in

a purpose-built clinic, a very difficult thing to replicate in an old

shipping container.

Rebecca’s solution to this problem? Pills – mifepristone and

misoprostol – which, when taken together, are more than 95 per cent

effective during the first 50 days of pregnancy. Misoprostol can

also be used alone, and is more than 94 per cent effective if

when reproductive rights are

restricted on solid land, there’s

a solution: hit the high seas.

WORDS ELEANOR ROBERTSON

women

on waves

real life