New York – A floating clinic on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, to allow women in Texas and other South American states to continue practicing legal abortion. That’s the idea he’s working on Meg Autry, gynecologist and professor at the University of California at San Francisco. A project that demonstrates how desperate the situation is becoming for many American women, after the Supreme Court ruling which canceled the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.
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The judges’ decision allowed individual states to ban abortion, and the ban is already in place in places like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, while others have passed laws to do so or are preparing to do so, such as Florida. . The remedy for many women is to go to states where abortion is still legal, such as California or New York, but these trips are expensive, complicated, and pro-life politicians are developing measures to ban them.
In order to circumvent all these difficulties, Autry launched the idea of the floating clinic off the coast of Texas, because it would be easily accessible from the southern regions of the United States, and being anchored in federal government waters, outside the jurisdiction of individuals. states, would be exempt from the prohibitions they have imposed. “There is an assault on reproductive rights in our country – the professor told the Associated Press – and I have defended reproductive health and choice all my life. We need to create options, and be sensitive and creative at the same time, to help people in states with the most restrictive rules get the assistance they deserve. “
The project is already beyond the simple idea, because Autry got in touch with the non-profit organization Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes (PRROWESS), and together they have already begun to raise funding. In the meantime, practical solutions are being studied, such as choosing the place to anchor the floating clinic, where to start it, and how to ensure the transport of patients. It may seem like an extreme solution, but it’s not the only one under consideration. Pro-choice activists have also suggested that the Biden administration authorize the construction of abortion clinics on Indian reservations, or on federal government-owned land in states that ban the practice, because they would not be subject to the ban. The FDA is also considering distributing the birth control pills in pharmacies without a prescription.
President Biden said yesterday he could proclaim a national emergency to facilitate abortion. But he also insisted that the only concrete long-term solution is to vote for MPs willing to pass a law in Congress, which would legalize abortion at federal level, and therefore nationwide.