Dutch Abortion Ship Heads to Muslim Country
Posted on | October 1, 2012 by Wendy Wright |
The Dutch abortion boat that has made more headlines than trips is headed to its first Muslim country. Its pro-abortion organizer Rebecca Gomperts has decided that now, in the midst of violent protests blamed on an anti-Islamic video, is the time to insult a majority-Muslim country.
Women on Waves chugs its dilapidated ship just outside the territorial waters of countries that limit abortion. It then taunts the nation by ferrying women to the ship ostensibly for chemical abortions. It is unknown whether the women actually get abortions.
Gomperts argues that any attempt to interfere with visits to the ship would be an “illegal” act against the freedoms of travel and expression.
She told the news agency AFP her group was invited to Morocco by local youth activists, the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI), to pressure the country to legalize abortion.
In 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Health refused to grant a license to the converted fishing trawler. Dutch officials were unable to regularly inspect the ship’s medical and safety standards and inspectors worried about the ship’s lack of access to emergency services, according to CNSNews.com
On a previous trip to Ireland, a spokeswoman for the group claimed that, due to an overwhelming request for services, they had concentrated on education and distributing contraceptives including the morning-after pill.
Pro-Life Ireland spokesman John Smith told CNSNews his group had not protested that trip because “We felt that the purpose of the boat was to inflame feelings and engineer a confrontation between pro-life groups and the boat, and we weren’t going to fall into that trap.”
In 2004, Women on Waves’ trip to Portugal was blocked by a warship sent by Portugal’s Minister of Defense. He said the abortion boat was a threat to national security.
