One veteran female abortionist from California, who also works as a professor for the University of California, San Francisco, has announced plans to start offering abortions on a boat that will make use of federal water within the Gulf of Mexico, in order to allow women to dodge any abortion bans being set up in their home states.
Dr. Meg Autry, a gynecologist and obstetrician, highlighted that women living in select southern states would have much easier access to abortions due to the boat being much closer to their coastal areas than being forced to take a flight out to another state. The plan, which is still trying to find backers to fund it, would see the ship doing its work in an area nine nautical miles off the coast of Texas and three from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama’s coasts — in an area just outside of the area designated as state-controlled waters.
Protecting Reproductive Rights Of Women Endangered by State Statutes (PRROWESS), Autry’s group, claimed that it is just “a solution for individuals seeking reproductive health care and surgical abortion where it is illegal or impossible.”
“It is just phenomenally difficult to get to an access state, even if it’s paid for,” Autry stated to KCBS. “Not only is this an innovative, different idea for surgical terminations, but it’s also closer, and more accessible and quicker than other options.”
Autry, along with her colleagues, will be carrying out these abortions on women up until the 14th week of their pregnancy.
“There’s been an assault on reproductive rights in our country and I’m a lifelong advocate for reproductive health and choice,” explained Autry to the Associated Press. “We have to create options and be thoughtful and creative to help people in restrictive states get the health care they deserve.”
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas have all issued bans on abortion in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court choice to officially overturn Roe v. Wade.
“It is my life’s work,’” stated Autry to NBC Bay Area, explaining, “Part of the reason we’re working on this project so hard is because wealthy people in our country are always going to have access [to abortions], so once again it’s a time now where poor, people of color, [and] marginalized individuals, are gonna suffer — and by suffering I mean like lives lost.”
The president of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in California, Stacy Cross, stated, “Over the years we’ve talked about things like boats on federal waters out past the 5-mile line.”
“PRROWESS is committed to providing a safe haven for individuals in states where their rights are severely impacted by legislation limiting their access to reproductive health care,” read the website for PRRROWESS.
“PRROWESS believes that no matter how draconian measures targeting reproductive rights become, together we can and will re-assert control over our bodies and lives.”