Medics are eyeing the Gulf of Mexico to avoid the abortion ban in some US states. Plans for ‘floating clinics’ on the Gulf of Mexico are being considered by a doctor in California.
Dr. Meg Autry is set to launch a ship to protect women’s reproductive rights. The ship is titled PRROWESS”âshort for “Protecting Reproductive Rights Of Women Endangered by State Statutes. — will be a floating abortion clinic in the Gulf of Mexico.
Autry, an obstetrician and gynecologist and a professor at the University of California San Francisco, believes that the overturning of Roe vs Wade is an assault on the reproductive rights of women.
“There’s been an assault on reproductive rights in our country and I’m a lifelong advocate for reproductive health and choice. We have to create options and be thoughtful and creative to help people in restrictive states get the health care they deserve,” she told The Associated Press.
The ship, a comprehensive reproductive health clinic, will have a team of licensed medics, who will offer surgical abortions for up to 14 weeks, contraception and other care. Patients from other states where abortion is banned can visit the clinic to undergo abortions.
Federal waters begin nine nautical miles from the coast of Texas, and three nautical miles from the coasts of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. All four states have banned abortion following last month’s Supreme Court ruling, and after Texas’ trigger law takes effect, the only exception allowed in any of those four states will be for rape in Mississippi, according to KCBS Radio.
Autry stated that the “PRROWESS” will float in “a swath of federal waters in the Gulf” so it can provide care at little to no cost to poor and marginalized communities around the Gulf of Mexico, according to the report.
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