Dutch group plans abortion boat

Abortion activists have devised a plan to bypass legal bans on
abortion in countries around the world by providing
pregnancy-termination services to women on a ship 12 miles offshore in
international waters.

The ship, called the "Sea Change," will be owned and operated by

Women on Waves, a non-profit organization in the Netherlands. The Sea Change will dock in a country where women have requested the group's abortion services, allowing patients to board. Regular trips will be made to international waters from any given harbor for up to six months. After that time, the Sea Change will sail to its next destination.

In areas where women may undergo harassment for boarding the Sea Change, remote pick-ups may be arranged. Patients will board smaller boats to be taken to the ship anchored offshore.

TRENDING: Voters blame Biden for border crisis, ready to punish Democrats, poll says

Women on Waves has yet to collect enough money to purchase or lease a ship for its abortion project and is relying on tax-deductible donations from foundations and individuals.

The group was founded last year by Dutch abortionist Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, who says the idea for the group stemmed from her experiences with

Greenpeace. As a medical doctor on the Greenpeace ship, the "Rainbow Warrior," Gomperts said she provided "reproductive health services, primarily abortions."

"As the ship doctor for Greenpeace in South America, I met another doctor who told me about the health problems associated with illegal abortions in his country. The urgent desire to really do something about this problem came when I learned the degree to which illegal abortion is a major public health concern, as the main cause of maternal mortality around the world," she says on the Women on Waves website.

According to the website, out of 53 million abortions performed around the world annually -- one quarter of all pregnancies -- 20 million are "illegal and unsafe," resulting in the death of 70,000 women each year.

"Let's face it: abortions are being performed, whether they are legal or not," Gomperts added. "Given this fact, it seems to me that it is essential that they should be done safely and affordably, which is only possible when abortion laws are liberalized."

While North America and most of Europe have embraced abortion as a reproductive right, countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia maintain strict laws against the procedure.

Most countries in those continents allow abortion only to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or "fetal impairment." But Chile and El Salvador ban abortion for any reason.

Besides serving as a floating abortion clinic, the Sea Change will also be used as a venue for reproductive health education. Locals who board the ship will be given information about fertility, contraception and abortion procedures.

Additionally, Sea Change medical personnel will train local medical professionals in the techniques of vacuum aspiration -- a method of abortion employing a suction device which is inserted vaginally into the uterus to remove the fetus and placenta.

Gomperts says only first trimester abortions will be performed on the ship in order to reduce the risks of complications.

But complications from the procedure may be unavoidable, according to one source.

Joseph Scheidler, director of the

Pro-Life Action League, told WorldNetDaily the first thing Women on Waves needs to reduce risks of complications is "a steady floor."

Joseph Scheidler, director of the Pro-Life Action League, believes the "Sea Change" is an implausible idea.

The veteran pro-life activist said Gomperts' vision sounds more like a gimmick than a viable operation and pointed-out that countries hostile toward abortion can still take retribution on women who return to shore.

"It's very expensive to operate a ship," he noted. "The abortions would have to be very expensive."

But Gomperts plans to provide the procedure free of charge. How that will be accomplished remains to be seen since the doctor still has not raised enough money even to obtain a ship, much less operate it.

"Women are so desperate to kill their children, they have to have a boat to run around in," he added, saying an offshore rendezvous will not keep anti-abortion advocates from making their case to pregnant women.

"If we know where the women are going to meet with their dingy, we'll meet them there. We will go where they are," he said. "They cannot stop the people who believe in life from trying to save life."

"It's like one of these pipe-dreams people have," Scheidler said. "You've got to give them credit for imagination. It's a very typical kind of wild-eyed, un-thought-out plan."

"It sounds crazy to me but there are crazy people out there," he added. "Anybody who kills their own baby has got to be crazy."