Women on Waves (WoW) is a Dutch nongovernmental organization (NGO) created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Other services offered by WoW include contraception, individual reproductive counseling, workshops, and education about unwanted pregnancy. Workshops are conducted for lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, Services are provided on a commissioned ship that contains a specially constructed mobile clinic, the A-Portable. When WoW visits a country, women make appointments, and are taken on board the ship. The ship then sails out approximately 20 km (12 miles), to international waters, where Dutch laws are in effect on board ships registered in the Netherlands.
According to Gomperts, the first time the ship sailed out, it was a Dutch ship leaving Dutch waters. This meant they could take abortion pills with them to give out in international waters.
The A-Portable was designed by the Dutch studio Atelier van Lieshout and functions as both medical clinic and art installation. In the Netherlands, abortion is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy and covered by the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act or health insurers.
Women on waves represents part of the global move for reproductive rights. The ship has been used to test and challenge the limited reproductive rights in countries like Ireland and attempt to create more access to abortion.
More than 9 out of 10 abortions worldwide occur in developing nations like the ones Gomperts and Women on Waves visit. Unsafe abortions in regions where it is outlawed or restricted are a leading cause of maternal death.
Gomperts has faced considerable opposition to Women on Waves. The 2014 documentary Vessel shows anti-abortion protesters in Poland calling her a Nazi in a chant, and in Spain trying to tow the Women on Waves vessel back out to sea.
Rebecca Gomperts
thumb|Rebecca Gomperts, [[Łódź, Poland, 2017]]
Rebecca Gomperts is a physician in general practice, artist and women's rights activist. Born in 1966, Gomperts grew up in the port town of Vlissingen, the Netherlands. She moved to Amsterdam in the 1980s where she studied art and medicine simultaneously. Drawing on her experiences as a resident physician on the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior II, which was captained by Bart J. Terwiel, Gomperts created WoW in order to address the health issues created by illegal abortion. While visiting Latin America on board the Rainbow Warrior II, the organization was inspired by a desire to further facilitate social change and women's health. In some developing countries, as many as 800 illegal, unsafe abortions are performed daily, in contrast to some developed nations, such as the Netherlands, where residents have access to safe, legal, medical abortions and contraception. In collaboration with Atelier van Lieshout, she designed a portable gynaecology unit called "A-portable" that can be installed on chartered ships. The stated goals of the organization are to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about laws restricting abortion, as well as to provide safe, non-surgical abortions for women who live in countries where abortion is illegal.
The A-Portable
The mobile gynecological clinic was designed and named by Dutch artist and sculptor Atelier van Lieshout. Known as the A-Portable, the clinic is in a retrofitted shipping container. It is painted a light blue color with the Women on Waves logo painted on the sides. It appeared in Portugal at the Ute Meta Bauer's Women Building Exhibition; in Amsterdam at the Mediamatic art space; and in Artforum.
Voyages
In 2002, after contentious debate in the Dutch parliament, The Netherlands' Minister of Health, Els Borst, gave permission to medical personnel on board the Women on Waves ship to offer pregnant women RU-486, known colloquially as the abortion pill, on board their boat, Aurora.
Abortion and reproductive laws only extend as far as national borders, including nautical borders. Because of this, Women on waves makes use of added freedom in international waters.
thumb|356x356px|Boundaries of international waters worldwide
Ireland
Women on Waves made its maiden voyage aboard the Aurora to Ireland in 2001. The ship carried two Dutch doctors and one Dutch nurse. The stated purpose of Women on Waves Ireland was to "catalyze" the Irish movement to liberalize Ireland's abortion laws. At the time, Ireland had the most stringent prohibitions against abortion in Europe, with laws forbidding the procedure that dated to 1861.
Poland
WoW sailed the Langenort to Poland in 2003. Women on Waves was charged with violating Poland's laws against abortion by bringing RU-486, also known as the abortion drug, into Poland. While docked, protesters pelted fake blood and eggs at the ship. Four months afterward, the government of Poland dropped the charges, noting that there was no evidence that Women on Waves had violated Poland's laws. Poland's official polling company, Centrum Badania Opinii Spolecznej, found that prior to WoW's visit, 44% of the population supported the liberalization of abortion laws, and that after the visit, the percentage rose to 56%.
Portugal
In 2004, the ship Borndiep, carrying the A-Portable, was physically blocked by a naval warship as it attempted to enter Portuguese waters. In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a decision in favor of the plaintiffs in Women on Waves and Others v. Portugal. The court determined that although Portugal had a right to enforce its laws prohibiting abortion, the nation could have enforced the law in less harmful ways, e.g. by sequestering the abortion drugs that were on board the ship.
Morocco
Ibtissam Lachgar of MALI (Mouvement alternatif pour les libertés individuelles) invited Women on Waves to visit Morocco in 2012. On 3 October 2012, the Moroccan health ministry closed the port of Smir to prevent the entry of the Women on Waves ship Langenort. This was the first attempt by Women on Waves to make landfall in a Muslim-majority country. Anti-abortion protesters were present, many carrying signs against abortion. The activist Rebecca Gomperts was at the port to meet the ship, but she was escorted away upon encountering the protesters.
Guatemala
On 22 February 2017, the WoW ship docked in Puerto Quetzal on the Pacific coast for a planned five-day visit. On 23 February, a scheduled press conference was shut down shortly after it started
and a blockade was imposed by Army troops, preventing the activists from disembarking and visitors from boarding. The WoW ship was ejected into international waters by a Guatemalan military ship. The argument to expel the boat was that they lied to the immigration authorities by saying that they were tourists, but in reality they are a health organization that aims to provide abortions to women.
Mexico
thumb|pro-choice protestors in Mexico
In April 2017, the Adelaide ship docked in Ixtapa, Mexico, where abortion procedures were illegal in much of the country. To administer the procedures, the crew ferried the women seeking abortions from Mexico's Pacific coast to the international waters, where Mexican criminal law was not in effect for the ship.
Documentary
In 2014 Vessel, a documentary by Diana Whitten focusing on Women on Waves, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where it won the Best Documentary Feature audience and special jury awards. 'Vessel' was received fairly positively by critics and audiences. Courtney Small of Cinema Axis called it an "electrifying" look at Gomperts' operation and Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times called it an "unabashed work of advocacy." The Hollywood Reporter's review said it was unlikely to change audience's opinions on abortion, but called it a moving film. It has a Metacritic Metascore of 68.
The film has garnered multiple other awards including the Audience Award for Documentary in Competition and a Special Jury Award for Political Courage.
Feminist activism
In an academic article published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Carrie Lambert-Beatty claims that "the vessel [is] one of the most audacious instances of feminist activism in recent memory."