"Women on Waves"; Dutch nonprofit providing abortions at sea

http://www.womenonwaves.org/

A totally random Internet stumble-across that I know for a fact many of you might well want to read up on and support.

The basic concept: ship anchors near country that bans abortions, far enough out that it is in international waters (where Dutch laws are in effect on board the ship) and thus out of said country's jurisdiction. Women make appointments and are taken aboard ship for abortion services.

Even better yet, women can squat over the edge of boat to give birth, dropping unwanted babies into the waters to either drown or let fish take them!:spin

Very cool.

I read that and have to admit I felt my charity wallet creak open. Power to these women. They're off the coast of Spain at the moment, and have helped women off the coast of Ireland and Poland in the past -- the Portuguese navy sent two warships to keep them away! Apparently, they get non-pregnant volunteer ladies (in greater number than the pregnant women they're escorting) to walk to and from the boat with the pregnant ones, so that none of these weepy fundie mysogynists, rapists, and rapist-enablers take a pot shot at them.

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"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

The workers in that commendable organization have guts. And integrity. I scoped out their website and they give an online doctor consultation if you want an abortion and if you pass will mail you the pills with which to do it.

In their small and unheralded way they are freeing many women from oppression all over the world. Respect to them.

We are not that far away from abortion ban. During the 3rd presidential candidate debate, both Obama and McCain stated that they are for outlawing abortions. Who are we supposed to vote for?

I'm doing a write in vote for Marvin the Martian. This election is a joke, might as well treat it as such.

Amethyst Wrote:
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> I read that and have to admit I felt my charity
> wallet creak open.

Mine too, to donate in Sarah Palin's name.

Keep working more hours, CF people! Millions of breeders depend on us.

If they can do it with casinos, why not do it with abortion clinics? It would give the sperm-donors something to do while they wait.

In a perfect world, when a woman has an unwanted pregnancy then it's handled in the privacy of her personal gynecologist's office without picketers, name calling, and news at eleven crowds. It's a simple D&C for God's sake and can be done with local anesthesia in a regular exam room in ten minutes or less with an average 15-20 minute recovery time. A "round trip" abortion from confirmation of pregnancy and level of gestation, a couple of valium, the anesthesia, and the actual procedure and recovery time itself could be accomplished in less than an hour if there are no complications or unforeseen delays.

This bullshit of having to fight crowds of strangers who are protesting in a loud and intrusive way and invading peoples' privacy JUST to gain access to a clinic, be subjected to mandatory vaginal ultrasounds and "educational counseling", etc..., and the start to finish of 6-8 hours of completely unnecessary stress of sitting in a fucking abortion clinic along with 15-20 other women they have never met who are also naked from the waist down and wearing cheap plastic gowns, is ridiculous. I was shocked to find out that at most clinics they tell ALL of the patients to get there at 7am and they don't actually get the "procedure" until between 2-4pm. The rest of the time they are being "counseled", and wait for hours on various tests and then even longer as they literally sit in a room with ALL of the others who are waiting their turn to lay on the table. The recovery room is no different with 10 or more women all hunkered over on cots and chairs in pain, crying, etc....as they get their vitals and pads checked, their packet of antibiotics, and some juice and a cookie. How NOT private can that be? No one complains though because who would they complain to?

The termination of a pregnancy for whatever reason should be as private and protected as getting a penile implant, an IUD inserted, or ANYTHING ELSE which should ultimately be between two people, the patient and the doctor, not all of these outsiders. I can't IMAGINE 10-15 men all waiting in a small room donning surgical gowns and naked from the waist down as they wait on the nurse to call them in for a vascectomy. I can't even imagine a gynecologist dumping 10-15+ women in the same waiting area who are in gowns and waiting on a procedure which everyone in the room was aware of what they were "in for". It is a clear cut invasion of privacy the way that abortions are handled and I highly resent it.

WHY should a legal medical procedure be known to anyone but the patient and the medical staff? I have seen many a TV film clip of women who are entering abortion clinics and I think that a patient's right to privacy should trump their right to picket, protest, or draw attention to the women who are entering the clinic for whatEVER reason. I applaud the brave women who actually board a ship to get a legal abortion, but I feel sorry for them in that EVERYONE knows what the ship is and which procedure they have had done. We are no where NEAR having equal rights, no where near it at all.