This Doctor Moved Her Clinic To The Middle Of The Ocean To Help Women Get Safe Abortions [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts on her ship
CREDIT: VESSEL


http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/01/08/3608164/rebecca-gomperts-vessel/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=tptop3&utm_campaign=tptop3


BY TARA CULP-RESSLER POSTED ON JANUARY 8, 2015 AT 12:41 PM UPDATED: JANUARY 9, 2015 AT 2:18 PM

“How could we create a space in which the only permission a woman needs is her own?”

That’s the question Dr. Rebecca Gomperts poses at the beginning of Vessel, a new documentary that follows her work sailing around the world to teach women how to safely use abortion-inducing drugs. Nearly 15 years ago, Gomperts took to the sea in search of that space for the women who lack reproductive health options.

Gomperts, a physician and former Greenpeace activist, made international headlines after launching the organization Women on Waves, which relies on the use of offshore spaces to advance abortion access. She and her colleagues traveled to countries like Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and Morocco to help women use abortion-inducing pills called misoprostol — also referred to simply as “miso” — to safely end an early pregnancy. They administered miso in a clinic aboard their ship, which was registered in the Netherlands. There, under the jurisdiction of Dutch law, they were able to bring safe abortion to countries where the procedure is otherwise illegal.

Miso is used around the world for multiple medical purposes, like inducing labor, treating post-partum hemorrhages, and preventing ulcers. In many countries, it’s stocked on pharmacy shelves primarily for those purposes. But women desperate to end a pregnancy don’t always realize that the right dosage of miso — 12 pills over the course of 12 hours, according to the World Health Organization — can also be used to induce a miscarriage.

FULL story at link.