Abortion Ship Docks in Poland After Initially Prevented

e3mil.com ^ | 6/24/03

[nickcarraway]

Wladyslawowo, Poland — After initially being prevented from docking in Poland, the Dutch-based abortion ship arrived in the eastern European country on Sunday and was greeted by a gathering of protesters.

Dozens of people, many shouting “murderers” and waving Polish flags, met the Langenort as it pulled into the Baltic Sea port of Wladyslawowo.

The Langenort, a converted tugboat, has a makeshift operating room where abortions are performed and pro-life groups say to perform abortions there is dangerous to women. Although crew members don’t intend to perform surgical abortions on this trip, they declined to say whether they intended to make the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone (formerly RU 486) available to Polish residents who come aboard the boat and sail to international waters.

Local news agency PAP quoted harbormaster Kazimierz Udro as saying the ship had arrived without permission and could be fined and ordered to leave, but its crew denied the report.

“We have had no official notification of that, so I don’t think it’s true,” said Rebecca Gomperts, head of the group Women on Waves, adding that the ship had been moved to another dock less accessible to the public.

On Saturday, Poland refused to let the abortion ship dock into this north port. This ship, which performed abortions in international waters to avoid the pro-life laws of nearby countries, was forced to anchor offshore after being turned away. Rebecca Gomperts, director of the pro-abortion group Women on Waves that sponsors the ship, said they were told the port was closed due to bad weather. A storm plagued the Baltic Sea late Friday. But while the ship was waiting offshore at least one other ship sailed out, they said.

“The law is being broken, this Dutch ship cannot enter the port, although it has the right to — this shows that Polish democracy is still very immature,” Polish pro-abortion activist Wanda Nowicka told a news conference in Wladyslawowo after the ship was prohibited from entering.

Outside the news conference about 50 protesters pelted participants with eggs as they entered.

“We will not allow the murder of unborn children in Poland,” news agency PAP quoted Robert Strak, a member of the Polish parliament, as saying. “We will follow this ship and block it. No one should have any illusions that this ship will enter.”

Poland is one of the few European countries where abortion is more restricted and Polish Pope John Paul II, head of the world’s billion Catholics and a staunch opponent of abortion, is widely regarded as the country’s greatest moral authority. “We must not let criminals enter our territorial waters and perform crimes on our children,” the Archbishop of Gdansk, Tadeusz Goclowski, said during a Mass last Thursday.

Poland’s abortion laws have changed several times since the fall of communism in 1989, reflecting power shifts between right-wing governments and the post-communist left, which has attempted to make abortion more available.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the ship’s arrival raised “problems of a legal and moral nature.”

Currently abortion is allowed only if pregnancy is a threat to a woman’s health, if the fetus is damaged or after rape. Doctors face up to three years in jail for illegal abortions.

Women on Waves upset pro-life leaders in Ireland in 2001 when its abortion ship docked in the center of Dublin, but Gomperts said the reaction was very different, with Irish police and port officials providing more support than their Polish counterparts.

The Polish League of Families had asked prosecutors to ban the boat from mooring anywhere in Poland, arrest its crew members for “instigating crime” and impound the vessel.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[Malesherbes]

The German newschannel Deutsche Welle tonight had a program about low birth rates and the declining numbers of young people in Germany. Some villages are virtually depopulated, playgrounds are being closed.

Poland has not yet adopted the "culture of death" prevalent in western Europe. I go to Poland twice a year and one of the pleasures is the ubiquity of young kids. I only hope that the Poles continue to reproduce themselves and don't succunb to the suicidal tendencies of western Europeans.

[firewalk]

Thanks for the update

[jocon307]

"Dozens of people, many shouting “murderers” and waving Polish flags, met the Langenort..."

GO POLAND!!! God Bless them, I am loving the Poles these days. Who can tell us how to say, Go Poland, or Hooray Poland, or however you say it in Polish, in Polish? Please include pronunciaion key! I only know how to say "give me a kiss", but I can't write it. I think I know grandma too, I have learned this much Polish since my time in Bayonne, NJ, home to many fine Polish-Americans, but not nearly so many as Chicago, or so I understand.

I will root for them in Soccer, that's what I will do!

GO POLAND!

[cgk]

Although crew members don’t intend to perform surgical abortions on this trip, they declined to say whether they intended to make the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone (formerly RU 486) available to Polish residents who come aboard the boat and sail to international waters

I am highly skeptical they traveled to a country where abortion is illegal to NOT perform surgical abortions, and the fact they decline to state whether RU-486 (nice try with the "formerly", it is what it is), will be made available in int'l waters. Polish laws dictate any women who take the drug in Poland will be arrested, IIRC. If they take it on the ship, and their baby is killed in Poland, what happens then? It isn't automatic, RU-486.

[cgk]

Update ping. The murderers have docked.

[Think free or die]

It's great to hear that there are still lots of little ones somewhere in Europe. Love those Poles!

[FITZ]

Maybe the Poles will be the ones left to save civilization.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads ups!

[Coleus]

`

[ApesForEvolution]

Would someone please sink this dam* ship NOW!

[JustPiper]

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the ship’s arrival raised “problems of a legal and moral nature.”

Now 'why' did they let it dock?!

[Cronos]

let it dock then punch a big hole in it then let it sink down to Day jones' locker where it belongs. Or even better, send these feminazis to SaudiArabia or Iran.

[Cronos]

The Froggies and Jerries are nutz -- they killtheir own kinder and import slamofascists, hail Francistan and Germanistan.

[neb52]

From what I read on other reports they refused docking, so after a few days the ship just came in and docked. Which is what caused it to be siezed and the crew put under confinement.

[wideawake]

I think the Polish equivalent of "Viva Poland!" is Mieszka Polska! or similar.

[OldCorps]

agreed. sink the ship, send the murdering survivors to Afghanistan villages.

[jocon307]

Thanks!

[Cronos]

AlQ would be embarassed to have 'em -- the pro-death folks have taken more lives than AlQ, Saddam and the Ayatollahs combined!