So, I recently learned about this rather fascinating woman and her mission across the high seas. It probably got my antenna twitching a lot more because of my recent notice of what Texas is doing to strip women of rights over their bodies.
See, this woman who is a bad-ass doctor has gathered other doctors and is flying (lol, sorry, couldn’t help myself) the high seas onboard her ship, the Adelaide, to go to international waters outside of countries that prohibit abortion, like Mexico. Once perched outside these countries, they ferry women to their ship where they provide abortion…. which is perfectly legal because the ship flies the Austrian flag where abortion is legal. They call themselves Women on Waves, which frankly, is an awesome bad-ass name that makes me want to get my medical license or captaining licenses and join them.
The best part of this (besides the whole providing women with the right to decide what is best for them and their bodies) is that Gompert is frustrating countries, like Mexico, because they can’t do anything because what she is doing is perfectly legal. Why, you may ask. The answer is rather simple but odd (but hey, that is maritime law for you): each ship has to carry a flag, and whichever national flag they carry (which honestly can be any country because of ‘open flag’ registries that have become popular in the last fifty years) means that their boat is technically a piece of that countries land, and so, they have to follow the laws of that country. For once the whole outlaw, de-regulated mess of maritime law is working for the benefit of people, and I love that this band of doctors is exploiting this loophole to fight injustice that many women are living under.
Of course, though, they haven’t not encountered resistance. In Guatemala, for instance, the police were alerted beforehand and when they went to the dock to get the women to transfer them to international waters they were rebuffed and declared a national security threat (and thus, in political hot water with that country). In part this reaction of these countries comes from the fear that Gompert and Co will undermine their moral authority (hello, national security threat) and in part these countries fear the outcomes of women no longer staying underneath their controlling thumbs (you know, the next thing they’ll want is equity, the horrors). And at the same time, people in these countries are also reacting, often violently to her squad of doctors. For example, in Ireland (when it was still illegal), they faced bomb threats and in Spain they faced a crowd of people who tried to tow the boat back to land. These people, of course, are invested in being anti-abortion for several reasons including moral superiority and control over women’s bodies.
Despite being charged as a ‘ship of death,’ Gomperts is providing a necessary medical procedure that could and will save women’s lives. She saves their lives because she provides a safe, medically done procedure that is like a hundred times better than the back-room abortions that many women would have turned to otherwise. She saves their lives also because she provides women with the ability to get an abortion if they need it because of medical or even financial, emotional, and practical reasons. This group is not willy-nilly throwing abortions around saying ‘one for you, one for you and one for you.’ No, they are providing this service to desperate women who need it, want it, desire it. And frankly, I’m here for it.
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