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 rom
the beginning the idea seemed bizarre — performing abortions on
a converted fishing trawler outside the 12-mile limit of countries,
like Ireland, where abortion is illegal. Anyone who has crossed
the Irish Sea knows it's no duck pond. A haircut, dental cleaning,
even applying mascara could be hazardous in its frequent rough swells
... but surgery! They had to be kidding. And, it turns out, they
were.
The mid-June
arrival in Dublin of Sea Change (as this converted fishing
trawler has been dubbed) — without the requisite Dutch and Irish
licenses to transport passengers, much less perform abortions and
demonstrate having passed a Dutch medical inspection — forced its
sponsor, Women on Waves, to admit the "abortion ship"
was mostly a publicity stunt. Ship spokesman, Joke van Kampen, told
reporters: "What we are really here for is to get attention
for the state that Irish women are in."
The joke was
on investors, whose $117,000 stake has nearly run out (the trawler
costs more than $1,000/day) and on the poor, desperate Irish women
who thought they could get free or cheap abortions on board. Its
medical director, Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts, explained to the
NRC Handelsblad newspaper: "If we perform 100 abortions
each week during 10 months per year, each intervention will cost
only 100 dollars to make the project self-supporting" and "If
we can get enough donations we can do the interventions without
charge."
Women on Waves
claims that 250 Irishwomen signed up for abortions, many of whom
cancelled flights and appointments with English abortionists. Perhaps
the delay and disillusionment will prompt these poor souls to change
their minds — all to the good. But it seems despicable to take advantage
of their vulnerability and desperation just to make a political
point and to "help rejuvenate a moribund Pro-Choice movement"
in Ireland.
Mother Jones
reports that the "idea for Sea Change was born [their
unfortunate phrase, not mine] while Gomperts served as a physician
on Greenpeace's ship, the Rainbow Warrior. Greenpeace's ability
to change public policy through direct actions convinced her that
similar strategies could be used" against national laws defending
human life before birth. Apparently Dr. Gomperts saw no irony in
applying tactics aimed at protecting sea life and opposing weapons
of mass destruction to her new mission — destroying children's lives,
one at a time.
Logistics do
not appear well thought out. Dr. Gomperts has stated that she planned
to follow Dutch law, which allows abortion up to 22 weeks' gestation,
but also requires a five-day waiting period between counseling and
abortion. The abortion ship might remain at dock (quite expensive,
if not impossible due to crowded docks) or in harbor (accessible
by light craft) during the non-killing portions of its activities
and take to sea only to do abortions. At this point, something gets
lost in the translation. The Women on Waves website explains:
At sea pregnancies
less than seven weeks can be treated with medication (mifepristone
and misoprostol). Also during land-based activities only first
trimester pregnancies can be treated because the risk for
complications is negligible when done with vacuum aspiration in
hygienic circumstances and performed by an experienced doctor.
Should a complication arise, the "A-Portable" [operating
room-in-a-box] is outfitted such that all ensuing medical problems
can be treated. ... Furthermore by training local medical professionals
in the use of the abortion pill, techniques of vacuum aspiration
and post-abortion care we will ensure that services delivered
by the ship will continue to be available after it has departed
[emphasis added].
Does that mean
they'll offer only "RU-486" abortions at sea (up to 7
weeks) and surgical — in the first trimester — only on land
where abortion is legal but inaccessible? Or will they also perform
surgical abortions on the high seas? In the Mother Jones
interview, Gomperts talks of first trimester surgical abortions
in open waters. As horrifying as the prospect is for a woman to
undergo a vacuum aspiration abortion on a trawler in rolling seas
12 miles off-shore (cervical lacerations are all too common on terra
firma), picture enduring the nausea, vomiting, cramping, diarrhea,
and hemorrhaging that are the normal effects of RU-486 (mifepristone/misoprostol)
abortions, under those conditions.
The RU-486
regimen requires one visit for counseling, a second for administration
of mifepristone, a third visit 48 hours later to be given misoprostol
(after which the woman's vital signs must be observed for, generally,
a minimum of four hours to deal with possible allergic reactions,
hemorrhaging, precipitous drop in blood pressure causing cardiac
arrest, etc.), and a fourth follow-up at 10-14 days to ensure there
are no retained fetal parts, no infection, and no other complications.
That means a minimum of two trips to the ship at anchor and two
trips into international waters, spread out over 18-22 days. And
this is supposed to be a good thing for women?
Asked about plans following the Dublin fiasco, Dr. Gomperts was
vague. The ship may sail back to the Netherlands for the missing
licenses, returning to Ireland in July. Or it may sail to South
America. Or Africa. Having done zero abortions in its first weeks
of operation, without additional investment (and who knows — a World
Health Organization representative called Gomperts a "reproductive
pioneer" and there's more than one billionaire throwing good
money into population control) the project seems dead in the water.
Just where it should be.
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