Dutch abortion ship is forced to flee Polish storm of protest
By Tony Paterson in Wladyslawowo
(Filed: 06/07/2003)

Pro-abortion activists from Holland who took a seaborne clinic to staunchly Catholic Poland have been forced to pull out after a fortnight of furious protests and official pressure.

Women on Waves, a group of radical campaigners seeking to spread their doctrine of "free abortions" throughout Europe, had hoped to bypass Poland's tough anti-abortion laws by ferrying women to international waters aboard a converted tug, the Langenort, to undergo abortions.

Last week, however, they abandoned their efforts and left Polish waters after providing "counselling" to only 20 women. Rebecca Gomperts, a former Greenpeace activist who heads Women on Waves, refused to say whether they had performed any abortions.

The arrival of the Langenort in the northern Polish port of Wladyslawowo provoked outrage from the Roman Catholic Church, and the vessel was met by furious demonstrators when it docked.

The first nine frightened-looking women were hustled aboard the vessel after running a gauntlet of insults and banners proclaiming "Don't Kill Polish Children".

Catholic leaders accused Women on Waves of trying to "kill Poles". President Aleksander Kwasniewski expressed official disapproval. From the moment the Langenort arrived in the fishing port, the Dutch activists found themselves targeted by the Polish authorities. First they were refused permission to enter the harbour, then they were fined for entering illegally.

The tug was searched by Customs officers, and containers of an abortion-inducing drug were sealed to prevent their distribution. Crew members and visitors were ordered to report to the police and told they faced investigation. While at sea, the tug was pursued by anti-abortion campaigners in a motorboat. Some opponents released dozens of mice on the vessel as a protest.

Abortion was legal in Poland during the communist era, but in 1993—after pressure from the Catholic Church—the government passed some of the strictest abortion legislation in Europe.

Terminations are not allowed after the twelfth week of pregnancy, and before that they are permitted only after rape or incest, if the mother's health is at risk or the fetus is irreversibly malformed. Only 124 legal abortions were carried out last year, although Poland's Federation for Women and Family Planning, which invited Women on Waves to Poland, estimates that up to 200,000 illegal abortions were performed last year.

Olga, a young woman who refused to give her second name, visited the Langenort last week to show solidarity with the campaigners after having an illegal abortion last year. "I was terrified because I couldn't raise the cash [to pay for the termination]," she said. "Eventually, friends lent me the money, but it had to be kept secret or I would have been called a murderer and a whore."

The tug's visit pushed the normally taboo subject of abortion on to the front pages of Polish newspapers. One opinion poll showed that 55 per cent of those Poles surveyed favoured free abortion, with only 24 per cent against.

Dr Gomperts said: "We have managed to put the abortion issue back on the political agenda."