Causes.com
| 7.18.22
A Floating Health Clinic & Other Proposed Workarounds to State Abortion Bans
How do you feel about proposed workarounds to abortion restrictions?
What’s the story?
- Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, states will decide if, when, where, and under what circumstances women can access abortions. Reproductive health clinics in states with abortion bans have been forced to closed or reduce their services. In response, healthcare practitioners and reproductive rights advocates are exploring ways to circumvent these bans and provide services.
- A California doctor has proposed building a floating abortion clinic on a ship in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, to allow women in Southern states to access first-trimester surgical abortions, contraception, STI testing, and other care.
- Obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Meg Autry says she has started building a legal team and fundraising for the project, titled PRROWESS - Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes. The organization’s website states:
“The vessel will be Coast Guard inspected and will have helicopter access for transport and emergencies. Our research indicates that patients are willing to seek care in a floating clinic, and these types of facilities have been used by the military and relief organizations for years.”
Other proposed bypasses to abortion bans
- Similar to the idea of performing abortions in federal waters to circumvent state jurisdiction, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) proposed opening abortion clinics on federal lands in states that have banned abortion.
- The legality of abortion clinics in federal waters or lands is unclear. In an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe, interim dean for the Temple University School of Law Rachel Rebouché argued that President Joe Biden could issue a blanket pardon from criminal charges for any doctor performing abortion procedures on federal land. However, Rebouché also acknowledged logistical and legal difficulties with the idea, and stated that expanding access to medication abortion would be a more viable short-term solution.
- Organizations sending FDA-approved medication abortion pills in the mail, like the international-based group Aid Access, are proving to be a formidable workaround to state bans.
- Medication abortion accounted for roughly half of all abortions performed in the U.S. in 2020, and Aid Access reported that following the Roe reversal, requests increased from roughly 600 a day to 4,000. While it is against the law for medical professionals in the U.S. to prescribe abortion pills to women in states where they are illegal, states have yet to develop an effective enforcement mechanism to stop deliveries from international physicians and pharmacies.
What's next?
- Clinics in states with near-total abortion bans are deciding what they will do next. Some plan to remain open but no longer provide abortions, focusing on other aspects of healthcare that still remain legal, such as contraceptives, HIV testing, ultrasounds, and counseling. Other clinics plan to relocate to nearby states without bans and continue full-service operations for those who can travel out of state.
- Liberal prosecutors in at least seven states severely restricting abortion have committed to not enforcing bans, including more than 80 district attorneys in states like Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
- Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vowed to grant clemency to any physician charged with violating the state’s abortion restrictions, and some cities like New Orleans and Austin have passed resolutions to decriminalize abortion.
- Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, and other major companies have announced they will help pay for travel expenses for employees who need to travel out of state to obtain an abortion.
The big picture
- Any workaround is being met with severe resistance from states banning abortion, with legal battles piling up.
- Some experts say the chilling effect of abortion bans and their potential punishments may be enough to overshadow promises of aid or protection from outside sources.
- Roughly half of all states are expected to have near-total abortion bans or restrictive limitations put in place following the Roe reversal. At least nine states have near-total abortion bans currently in place, four states have bans expected to take effect soon, and four have bans temporarily blocked. For up-to-date information on the status of state abortion bans, check here.
What do you think?
How do you feel about proposed bypasses to states’ abortion restrictions?
-Casey Dawson
(Photo credit: iStock / Volodimyr Trofimov)
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Innovative solutions are the best way deal with asinine laws that are unneeded and unwanted by the majority of the public.
This solution is much like the many innovative solutions poeple found to deal with the asininity of Prohibition. It was a means of resisting a law made by the 'righteous' few to dominate the many.
I woud expect many innovative means to deal with the Supreme Court's abomination but a little concerned about the same kind of criminal exploitation that occurred during Prohibition - such as unregulated underground clinics which have no oversight to ensure the safety of their patients.
Modeled on the Dutch organization, Women on Waves which provides medication abortions in international waters off the coasts of countries that restrict the procedure (Mexico, Guatemala, Poland, Morocco, Spain, Ireland)
As for using Federal Lands maybe consider using Indian Reservation where sovereignty is respected and allows casinos to operate if it does violate their beliefs which can vary by tribe.
https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/
The baby-killing business must be quite lucrative to get this much attention. The problem is that the my body my choice crowd was totally silent during the attempted mandatory jabs - so the amount of credibility these folks have in my eyes is zilch. You blew you chance to stand up for my body my choice and now the only thing that the reversal of RvW has brought into clear focus is your hypocrisy!🤦🏻♂️🤣
Where there is a WILL, there is a WAY. That is called ingenuity.
Women shouldn't have to sneak around. That is what they have to do in the Mid East. American women should be able to stand tall, heads up as they go about their personal lives.
I am opposed to killing babies, period, and support the prosecution of those that do it. It is an absolute with the one allowance being an emergent risk to the mother. Risk of death begs an exception. Risk of inconvenience does not.
Love this idea! Please support!
Women need to be provided with access to safe abortion in any way possible. Dr. Meg Autry’s idea for a floating abortion clinic in the Gulf of Mexico is proof that in wake of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, human beings can and should rise to the occasion, think outside the box, and find creative solutions.
I have lost all respect for our judicial system. If called for jury duty, I will wear my Fuck Jesus golf shirt. And find in whatever way would piss off Clarence Thomas
Any way that will prevent a"Back ALLY" .
As long as a MINORITY of Americans are determining the freedom of women to determine their own medical treatment, EVERY option must be considered to make medical treatments available.
i believe every woman has a right to choose, and every state should defend that right.
Mothers' lives must be saved when pregnancies go wrong. Children should not be forced to bear children.
Enabling further access to abortions is immoral, infernal, and indefensible. Abortion is a medical practice that intends to murder one of the two patients before they leave the room. Intentionally killing half your patients is not "healthcare," it is genocide.
Any government assistance in killing innocent children will be viewed in the future with the same disgust as the government protraction of slavery in the nineteenth century.
Will you tell your grandchildren that you fought to save their peers, or murder them?
It should never have come to this, but the RepuplicaNAZIs utilize every loophole they can to destroy America and drive the human race to extinction. I'm glad we're coming up with clever ways to fight back for our survival.
Generally strongly support. It would depend on the workaround, of course.
CAUSES ASKS: "How do you feel about proposed workarounds to abortion restrictions?" ME: Whatever works. The consequenses of the GOP's overturn of Roe v. Wade are devastating to women now forced to carry even a dead baby around in her body for weeks, or to carry a pregnancy to the brink of (if not over) her own death because those who could help her are too afraid to do so. Equally devastating are the consequences to the medical profession (and therefore we, the people): at a time when Ameriica, if not the whole world, is already short of every kind of them they are now quitting in earnest (up to 1/3 of nurses, perhaps 1 in 5 doctors by the end of the year). If the pandemic didn't push them over the edge, then -- at least for those in OBGYN -- SCOTUS and state legislatures have. The reports I read are heartbreaking.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/abortion-miscarriage-texas-fetus-stell/
Abortions are not a right. State governments should be the ones to decide if the state will support abortion or not. Once again people are trying to circomvent the system.
Not ideal, but better than back-alley operations, or hangers.
Abortions are between the mother, her doctor, God and maybe the dad. But NOT Government. 11 year olds shouldn't be forced to have a baby. Especially after a rape or incest. Other medical emergencies that may cause the mother to die as well as the mother like miscarriages should be allowed to have an abortion.
Stop policing women's bodies. They are capable of making the best decisions for themselves along with their medical team.
The federal government just needs to stay out of things that do not pertain to them. Let me rephrase that.....The federal government should stay out of trying to ursurp constitional rights of the states. I am 100% against abortion and 100% pro-life, as well as supporting the U.S. Constitiuion. So, with all that said, it is up to Indiana to detemine its abortion laws as it is up to California to detemine its aboriton laws, through the state legislatures and not the federal government.
How can anyone think they have a right over my body ❓
Sounds like a good idea if the patients can be guaranteed no rebutal from their state of origin. Best option in my opinion is to get rid of the right wing extremist judges sitting on the bench of the Supreme Court. No more closed minded judges allowed. Term limits along with age limits installed. I'm sick of this power play for overthrowing the constitution.
Shouldn't have to be workarounds , but political interests are leading to musguided legislation that strips personal freedom and inappropriately intrudes into healthcare in ways that leave no alternative