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I love it when I come across organizations and campaigns that I had no idea existed! Women on Waves (WOW) is a new discovery of mine. The organization is based in the Netherlands, but helps provide abortion, education and advocacy for reproductive rights in areas where it is illegal. It does this in part, by sailing a ship into international waters where local laws don’t apply. Once transported on board, women are able to obtain safe abortion, contraceptives, training and reproductive health information.

WOW was founded by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts in 1999. She had met women in South America that were suffering physically and mentally from unwanted pregnancies, lack of reproductive freedom and unsafe abortions. It was the experiences of these women that became the motivation for Women on Waves.

Beyond providing abortions and education on the ship, WOW also does trainings and provides abortion hotlines. One of their focuses is on the use of Mifepriston and Misoprostol, both often referred to as abortion pills. These can be used effectively and safely until the 9^th week. This provides an option for women who do not have access to abortions in clinics.

A recent Huffington post article gives an account of a workshop in Tanzania where Misoprostol is registered as a drug to stop postpartum bleeding. The training took place in a rural area near the Congo and Burundi borders. Activists and volunteers learned how to get the drug and use it safely. One of the biggest surprises for me was a picture from the workshop with a large number of male attendees. This gives me a lot of hope for change.

A documentary is being produced about Women on Waves. Vessel will document the work of WOW and the confrontation and support they receive in different locations. When you visit Vessel The Film website you can see some of the footage they have gathered so far and a preamble for the film.

One of the clips is from the ship’s arrival in Spain. It is an empowering moment for choice activists on the scene. However, they are also greeted by shouts of “Terrorists” and “Fascists.” I particularly think the label of fascists is ironic and laughable since fascism is all about control and denying people of free choice.

The opposite of fascism is Women on Waves and their effort to empower women with control over their bodies, reproduction and choices.

September 4th marks the tenth anniversary of the founding of Women on Waves, a Dutch group that has provided abortion pills for women in countries where abortion is illegal. Women on Waves used to sail their boat out into international waters to evade anti-abortion laws in the women’s home country, provide the abortion pills, then send the women home. But as of May 18th of this year, the group has run aground, after the Dutch government told Women on Waves that they had to stop. According to the Dutch newspaper NRC:

For [founder Rebecca] Gomperts it was her way to right an enormous wrong: the 20 million women who undergo illegal abortions every year worldwide, and especially the 68,000 women who die as a result each year – a plane crash a day . . .

On May 18, the Dutch government decided to limit the distribution of abortion pills to specially approved clinics only, including for early abortions (up to 16 days after the last menstruation). Until now, WoW was allowed to provide the pill for early abortions based on a written permission from then Dutch health minister Els Borst.

Gomperts: “We had planned to campaign this year with a yacht off the coasts of Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Our legal system states that what is allowed under Dutch law is also allowed in international waters. So women boarding our ship did not have to fear prosecution. Now they risk prosecution in their own country if the Dutch health inspection rules that we are working outside the law. That’s a risk we couldn’t take, so we had to call off the campaign.”

Everyone likes to think of Holland as a laissez faire country, where anything goes. By American standards, The Netherlands is still a progressive Mecca for tourists who want to smoke pot and visit prostitutes. Holland has historically been a very tolerant nation – but it would probably surprise many people to learn that Holland didn’t legalize abortion until 1981, and even then there was a five day waiting period to obtain an abortion. The waiting period was a concession to the Christian Democrat Party (CDA). However, there have never been restrictions placed on the use of RU-486 or emergency contraception, which is consistent with the liberal Dutch attitude.

However, things are starting to change in The Netherlands. Conservative politicians, such as the infamous Geert Wilders, who garnered international attention for making an anti-Muslim video in 2006, are starting to gain more popularity within the Dutch parliament. The conservatives have been successful in restricting Holland’s lenient drug laws – you can no longer buy mushrooms in the coffee shops, just marijuana. And the conservative parties have become very anti-immigrant with the decline of Holland’s economy. Wilders is rumored to be considering a run for Prime Minister. And the pending lawsuit against Women on Waves must be contextualized within that move to more conservative politics. One of the great ironies of Holland’s tolerant attitude is that even intolerance, such as the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Geert Wilders, must be tolerated if the country is to live up to its reputation.

That’s not to say that all hope is lost for Women on Waves. When I e-mailed one of my cousin’s in Holland to ask her about her take on the story, she told me that she has faith in the Dutch court system. The debate in The Netherlands seems to be focused on the safety of conducting abortions off shore. My cousin raised some good points:

They always have been working “on the edge,” because that is the place they discovered to serve women who otherwise would not be helped. That’s a good thing! But also this organization can go “over the edge.” What if someone would be damaged if the circumstances were not good? It’s hard to tell if they did, hence they have been called before the court. I strongly believe in our justice system, so we will see what it will bring about.

Despite the grounding of Women on Waves, Gomperts’ group will continue to provide help via the internet. The NRC story states that:

the single-most important achievement, [Gomperts] says, was the founding of Women on Web. Through the organization’s website, women in countries where abortion is illegal can now order the abortion pill online. A doctor asks 25 questions and checks for contraindications before writing out a prescription. The pills are then mailed in a discreet envelope. For legal reasons, Women on Web is registered in Canada, but the pills themselves come from a variety of countries.

Gomperts: “For many women this is huge progress. It is innovative, it really helps women. Women in countries where abortion is illegal live under tremendous stress. They go to unreliable websites where they are offered fake pills. There is also have a help desk where women can talk about their worries. These women need help. And anonymous support over the internet is quite effective. There are no taboos online; there is no shame to talk.”

We’ll keep you posted on any developments with Women on Waves’ court case. For more information about Women on Waves, check out this article from The Global Post, and this one from Broadsheet @ Salon.com.

NRC Handelsblad has a long article up about changes in laws around abortion in the Netherlands, which is pushing the amazing organization Women on Waves to cancel upcoming boat trips to provide abortions and information to women who cannot get them in their home countries. Rebecca Gomperts, who founded the organization ten years ago, is interviewed in the piece as well and talks about shifting attitudes toward abortion. Women on Waves was founded with the idea of creating a fleet of ships that would sail to countries in which abortion is illegal, transport women in need of abortions to international waters, and then provide safe abortions outside of the reaches of a nation’s restrictions to abortion. This never quite panned out – the financials needed to underwrite such a huge project would be, well, huge. What the organization has done, however, is another really amazing online activist project: Women on Web. Women on Web helps women gain access to medical abortion if they live in countries where such access is restricted. The site has information in Arabic, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, and Portuguese. The organization is now being prosecuted for distributing abortion pills off the coast of Spain in October 2008.

Unfortunately, in addition to the shifting Dutch laws, the work of Women on Web is being further restricted by none other than Google. At the beginning of July, my IWHC co-worker Lori Adelman blogged at Feministing about the fact that Google AdWords policy disallows ads for abortion services in over a dozen countries. (we’ve got a sample letter that you can use to complain to Google about this, should you feel so inclined).

Thanks to Linda Mans for the link to the NRC Handelsblad article on Twitter.

Abortion is entirely illegal in Chile, without exception. Yet today is International Day of Action for Women’s Health and Women on Waves, a fearless reproductive rights group (on a boat) from Holland that docks in ports worldwide to promote safe access to abortion services, is doing something about it.  They’ve just announced a new hot [...]