People in states that don't allow abortion may be able to go to the sea. An OB-GYN from California is raising money for a floating abortion clinic in the Gulf of Mexico. The federal waters are where the clinic boat would be positioned.
Dr. Meg Autry is an OB-GYN and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and she is leading the project called protecting reproductive rights of women. According to a report from NBC Bay Area News, Autry had been working on the idea of an offshore clinic for a while, and planning accelerated after the Supreme Court repealed the ban on abortions in 1973.
Poor, people of color, marginalized individuals are going to suffer because of the fact that wealthy people in our country are always going to have access to abortion.
Legal access to abortion will cause more deaths. There is a safe way to self-manage medication abortions. There are other dangers to restricting abortions, such as the rise in domestic violence and unsafe surgical abortions.
PRROWESS wants to serve people in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas. People in these areas might be closer to the coast than to facilities in bordering states where abortion and reproductive health care are available.
Three nautical miles off the coast of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, and nine miles off the coast of Texas are federal waters. All four states have enacted total abortion prohibitions since the repeal of the law.
People living in states with abortion bans can fly out of state to get care. One less time and cost intensive for some than long-distance air travel is what PRROWESS aspires to be.
Flying out-of-state requires patients to secure child care and time off work for multiple days, and may not be an option for people who are in the country illegally. PRROWESS will give easier and quicker access to services for those individuals.
If it becomes operational, the clinic will offer surgical abortions up to 14 weeks, contraception and emergency contraception, and social work and legal aid services. According to the PRROWESS website, receiving care on the floating clinic would be free for patients if donations were used.
There are still some details to be worked out. Autry told the Associated Press that the project team is still trying to figure out where the boat would launch from and how to best transport patients. They are prepared to fight back if they face legal challenges. Autry told NBC Bay Area News that they have started assembling a legal team.
It isn't the first example of advocates and experts calling for abortion havens that circumvent state laws. Senator Elizabeth Warren supports the idea of abortion clinics opening in national parks.
We are headed towards a future where abortion providers have to get creative to fight the efforts to limit reproductive rights.
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