Abortion Yacht

Moroccan police last Thursday escorted a small yacht carrying women's rights activists claiming to be able to perform abortions on board, after anti-abortion protesters yelled at them on land. The Dutch group, Women on Waves, sailed the boat around the Moroccan harbor with banners advertising an information hotline about abortion, which is illegal in that country. A day earlier, the group had said that they can provide "safe, legal, medical abortions" up until 6.5 weeks of pregnancy aboard the ship. The ship was on its way from the Netherlands. Medical professionals have traveled before to European nations to raise awareness. The group's founder said that abortions had been performed aboard ship before in waters off of Poland.

The trip in the Mediterranean coastal town of Smir, was the abortion rights group's first event in the country. Abortion in Morocco is illegal, except in rare cases, where the mother's life is threatened. It is also illegal to give out information about abortions. Moroccan officials had said the boat would not be allowed in to the harbor and police sealed the port.

In the afternoon, volunteers from Women on Waves said they already had stationed a sailboat in the harbor several days ago. The boat took off around the harbor, about an hour after the group's founder approached crowds of protesters on the ground, trying to hand out fliers on abortion in Arabic and French to them. Police then boarded the Dutch-flagged yacht and escorted it out of the marina. No one was charged.

"We launched a hotline that gives information to women here in Morocco, because the ship can never solve the problem here for everyone," said Rebecca Gomperts, the Women on Wave's founder. There were about 200 protesters in Smir outside the gates of the harbor. The Women on Waves boat was invited to Morocco by a local women's rights organization seeking the legalization of abortion in Morocco. Founded in 1999, Women on Waves aims to spread information about safe medical abortions induced by medication. The group traveled to Ireland in 2001, Poland in 2003 and Spain, and was banned from entering Portugal's waters in 2004.

This is so wrong. Why would you go to a country that has banned your group, and just hover in the international waters where everything is legal? That is just wrong. People need to be doing the right thing here.

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