The world has liberalized abortion over the last two decades.
Thirty-seven countries have expanded the legal grounds for abortion since 2000. Around the world, decriminalization, legalization, and ease of access are popular.
The United States has become a global outlier as a result of the Supreme Court's decision to kick the question of abortion rights back to the states.
Rebecca Gomperts is the founder of several international abortion-rights organizations.
She told Insider that something that was legal in the US is now illegal in another country.
A Dutch physician by trade, Gomperts founded Women on Waves in 1999 in an effort to prevent unsafe abortions and provide access to hundreds of thousands of women.
Most of the organization's campaigns use vessels that dock in abortion-restrictive countries. People who want to end their pregnancies board a ship and sail into international waters, where they can get the abortion pill. Dutch law allows for a legal loophole in the one-hour trips.
In subsequent years, the team has implemented a number of innovative ways to give abortion pills, including the use of drones and robots. From Argentina to Ireland, Gomperts has been there with her boats, robots, and drones in tow, sparking public debate and leading to monumental change.
The possibility of bringing one of their boat campaigns to Texas was looked into as states began cracking down on abortion access. The team did a full analysis and researched which harbors would be most convenient.
The method doesn't seem to be an appropriate response to what's happening in the US according to Gomperts.
It is a strategy to expose what impact restrictive abortions have. She said that it is usually in countries where abortion is illegal. It will create a public discussion, a public debate, and we want it to make a difference so that it becomes legal.
With the high court's recent ruling, the time for trying to change in the US seems to have passed.
It's part of our work to look at where you can intervene and make a difference. She said that they work that way. Most countries have legalized abortion, and I think the US is following suit.
Gomperts believes that someone is to blame for America's abortion backsliding.
She believes that the US has been taken over by a group of non-elected, conservative, fundamentalist Christians. The social structure of the United States is being upset by them.
She said that the court's ruling was unsurprising. The way for the reversal was paved by years of work by anti- abortion groups. She said that Donald Trump's chance to install three justices ensured the court's conservative bent for a long time.
She doesn't think others should give up despite the disappointing decision.
Aid Access gives access to medical abortion by mail in the US and around the world. Aid Access will continue to measure the impact of abortion restrictions in the US, focusing on where, when, how, and why pregnant women continue to access abortion.
She said that the service tracks what's happening on the ground so that the anti-abortion groups can't say that they were effective in reducing abortion rates. That isn't the case. There are still abortions, but they are not done in public.
Gomperts always looks to the future. She is trying to raise money to conduct a study on the health benefits of the abortion pill. If the pill can be registered as a weekly contraceptive, it could be a solution to the reversal of the birth control pill.
She thinks it's important to look for what is possible. What is possible?
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