Abort on a ship on the high seas, in federal waters.
This is the solution that a California gynecologist is devising for people who live in southern states, near the Gulf of Mexico, where abortions are prohibited.
Gynecologist Meg Autry, also a professor at the University of California, was working to bring this project to life when the Supreme Court ruled to overturn abortion rights and had to speed up plans.
The 'Protecting the Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes' (PRROWESS) project aims to bring reproductive health care to states where abortions are prohibited, limited, or difficult to access.
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Autry told NBC Bay Area that people living in southern states with restrictive abortion laws, like Texas and Louisiana, are closer to the coast than nearby states with more abortion access, like California.
Also, it is less expensive to take a boat than to buy a plane ticket to another state.
In Louisiana, a state judge on Friday lifted the judicial blockade that prevented the entry into force of the abortion ban.
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“Part of the reason we're working so hard on this project is because rich people in our country are always going to have access [to abortions], so once again, now is a time
where poor people, people of color, marginalized people, they are going to suffer,
and by suffering I mean lives lost, “Autry explained to the aforementioned media.
Autry has performed abortions for decades and refers to herself as "a lifelong abortion advocate."
The specialist specified that
the vessel will operate in federal waters,
nine miles from the Texas coast and three from the coast of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, where it can circumvent abortion restrictions in these states.
PRROWESS will be in charge of transporting the patients to the ship, which will travel according to their origin, once they have passed a pre-selection process.
Autry and a team of licensed physicians will offer
surgical abortions up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
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The team will also offer other services such as testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
The vessel will be inspected by the Coast Guard and will have helicopter access for transportation, according to the project's website.
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"The project is philanthropically funded and patient care is based on need, so most people will pay little or nothing for services," Autry added.
Autry's organization continues to raise money to get a boat and adapt it for medical use.
Once that happens, she says they'll put the captain, crew, and medical team on board and set sail.
Autry and his team maintain that the process is legal in federal waters.
However, they expect the states to oppose it at all times, so her team has already used several lawyers for advice.
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This is not the first time such a project has been carried out.
The NGO Women on Waves, created by the Dutchwoman Rebecca Gomperts, has been helping women from all over the world to have creative abortions on the high seas for 23 years.
In fact, since the annulment of Roe v.
Wave the organization is receiving requests from the United States for its abortion ship, according to Dutch media reports.
According to Gomperts, the organization is not currently deploying the ship in the US, but is examining "if it makes sense, where and when."
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However, Gomperts helps pregnant women with abortion pills through another organization with which she is affiliated, Aid Access.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, she has gone from receiving 600 emails a day to 4,000 asking for the pill.
Aid Access, an online-only service run by Gomperts, began shipping abortion pills to Americans from abroad four years ago.
The organization's team consists of about four doctors who supervise about 10 medical staff and are difficult for US authorities to locate because they are all out of the country and ship the pills from a pharmacy in India, NBC News reported. .
“We will continue to serve women who need it.
We are not going to stop,” Gomperts told the cited doctor.
