San Fran Gynecologist Plans to Create ‘Floating’ Abortion Clinic in Ship off the Gulf Coast

A San Francisco Bay area gynecologist is going forward with plans to create a “floating abortion” clinic off the Gulf of Mexico. The clinic will be “unconstrained by state laws regulating abortions, as the ship will sit in its berth in federal waters” reports USA Today. It will be placed nine nautical miles from the coast of Texas, and three nautical miles off the coasts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

Dr. Meg Autry and her team have launched a crowd-funding effort to raise $20 million to purchase and retrofit a ship. Autry’s attorneys assert that the team is made of licensed abortion providers who will not only offer first trimester abortions, but also contraception and other services.

“There’s been an assault on reproductive rights in our country and I’m a lifelong advocate for reproductive health and choice,” Autry told the Associated Press. “We have to create options and be thoughtful and creative to help people in restrictive states get the health care they deserve.”

Autry’s attorneys also say providers will be operating in federal waters and will be out of reach of any state law seeking to ban abortions.

“It is just phenomenally difficult to get to an access state, even if it’s paid for,” Autry told KCBS Radio. “Not only is this an innovative, different idea for surgical terminations, but it’s also closer, and more accessible and quicker than other options.”

The money raised by the team will also cover security, liability insurance, and patient care. The group says it has already consulted with a team of security experts that have a specialty working in the water. The ship will be called “PRROWESS” which stands for “Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes.”