Dutch ship fails to offer Irish women abortions
BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7301.1507/a (Published 23 June 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:1507
The voyage of the Aurora, the Dutch floating reproductive health clinic that docked in Dublin last week, may have forced as many as 100 Irish women with unwanted pregnancies to seek help in the United Kingdom after all.
The organisers have admitted that, without the necessary licence from authorities in the Netherlands, they never intended to perform abortions or distribute RU-146 pills on the journey. Nor, it seems, were they prepared for the level of response that the ship's visit engendered.
More than 200 international journalists covered the ship's visit to Ireland—almost double the number of women who contacted the vessel seeking terminations. Many of the women had cancelled scheduled visits to other family planning services to contact the Women on Waves organisation, which arranged the ship's visit.
A fundraising drive has now been started locally to assist some of them to travel to the United Kingdom for abortions.
Dr Gunilla Kleiverda, a Dutch gynaecologist on board the Aurora, said: “We didn't really expect to see more than two or three women. It is a pilot project to see if women were willing to come.”
The ship carries a small clinic in a container strapped to the deck.