Posted on 08/24/2004 9:57:32 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
DEN HELDER, The Netherlands (Reuters) - A Dutch floating abortion clinic set sail for Portugal Monday despite an attempt by the Dutch government to restrict its activities and after visits to Ireland and Poland stoked controversy.
In Portugal abortion is only possible when the mother's life is in danger and in few other specific cases, said Women on Waves, which leases ships to carry its clinic on campaigns.
The clinic, which offers the abortion pill in international waters to women in countries where they are illegal or more restricted than the Netherlands, has a permit to provide the pill to women with unwanted pregnancies of up to six-and-a-half weeks.
But the center-right government has restricted the foundation by refusing to grant a permit to provide first trimester abortions, unless the clinic remains within a 16-mile radius of the Dutch capital in order to be able to consult with a nearby hospital.
The group has appealed the decision. A court last week rejected its application to suspend temporarily the government order.
Women on Waves sailed to Ireland in 2001 and Poland in 2003 where its ship was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by protesters. Both countries have an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population and some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world.
"I expect there to be a certain degree of protest because the Catholic Church in Portugal is very active in this field, said Gunilla Kleiverda, a gynecologist with the group.
Women on Waves says a woman dies every five minutes somewhere in the world because of an illegal or unsafe abortion, and that its doctors provide counseling and abortions in international waters where Dutch ships operate under Dutch law.
I remember that we used to have project HOPE, a seagoing hospital ship that visited the third world performing lifesaving surgery, etc.. Now we have this grim ship of death.
bizarre
Women on the Burka
/sarcasm
I can just imagine what the docs are using for bait.
What a bunch of sick freaks! This boat gives new meaning to depravity.
Apparently, abortion ships (and euthansia ships?) are above the law.
If I had the resources, I'd buy one of those old Soviet subs the Colombian drug lords are so keen on and send this ghoulish vessel to the bottom of the sea.
Why can't these bitches stay at home.
They travel to countries, where abortion is illegal, and try to ram it down our throats - even when the populations of these countries have voted to keep abortion illegal.
This ship needs the 'Rainbow Warrior' treatment.
I agree. I wish just one nation in the world had the guts to sink her, but I'm not holding my breath.
Never seems to be a DSGE frogman around when you need one...
"If this is profitable, maybe they will follow up with a Euthanasia ship."
You may have written that to be sarcastic, but I have no doubt it is next.
Paging Captain Nemo.
Anyone remember the old phrase, Join the Navy, ride the WAVES?
Public Law 689 (Naval Reserve Act of 1938) amended July 30, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to include the Women's Auxiliary Reserve, later known as the "WAVES," for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
So, it's a lesbian ship! How can they do abortions on a lesbian ship?
Here's hoping the ship runs aground, or destroys itself on a reef.
Maybe someone could fool Greenpeace into doing it...
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