In the Spanish port of Valencia, six women boarded the Aurora, the flagship of Women on Waves, a Dutch evangelical abortion group. the Aurora took on six passengers in the Spanish port of Valencia Friday, all women with the common goal of terminating their pregnancies in international waters in order to flout Spain's anti-abortion laws.
Abortion is legal in Spain in some circumstances, including a doctor's finding that having a baby is likely to harm the mother's physical or mental health. Women who have been raped can end their pregnancies in the first trimester, while those carrying fetuses with severe defects can get abortions up to 22 weeks.
Not exactly abortion-on-demand, but it ain't exactly the Spanish Inquisition either.
In spite of opposition from groups like the Spanish Association of Catholic Doctors (FAMC) and a phalanx of quayside opposition and a flotilla of maritime protestors, the Women on Waves were able to add six to the 100,000 abortions that have occurred over the past decade under Spain's so-called draconian abortion laws.
The Women on Waves Spanish cruise is nothing new. Their tour of clinical carnage has also dropped anchor in Ireland (2001), Poland (2003), and Portugal (2004).
I remember that France had problems with some loony radicals in a boat once.
I guess the Women on Waves hope that the Spanish, Irish, Polish, and Portuguese will quit defending those pesky fetuses and worry about things that are important in Amsterdam, like making certain that no pigs are castrated before they are butchered for meat.
[ sources : Times Online, The Times of The Internet ]
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