[Badgirlz-list] Woman on Waves

>From NextGenderation -list:

(Per chi non lo sapesse Women on Waves è
un'organizzazione di dott.sse, ostetriche, chirurghe,
infermiere, anestesiste etc, che offre servizi come
l'aborto, l'assistenza ginecologica etc.
Il loro "ambulatorio" si trova a bordo di una nave che
spesso tocca coste di paesi dove ad esempio l'aborto è
illegale.
Hanno avuto vari problemi soprattutto con la
popolazione che le accoglieva a pietrate.... =(
Cmq in fondo al comunicato c'è il link.
Ciao

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Dutch court overturns denial for first trimester
abortion clinic
license
for Women on Waves.

Women on Waves is very pleased with the Court decision
on June 4 to
overturn the denial of the licence to operate a first
trimester
abortion
clinic by the Dutch Minister of Health in July 2002.
Women on Waves is
now
preparing the next sailing, but until the Minister of
Health has
actually
granted the licence for a first trimester clinic on
board the ship,
Women
on Waves will be restricted to the provision of the
abortion pill for
early
pregnancies. In the Netherlands no license is needed
for abortions
(till 45
days). As the courts decision can be interpreted to
clearly indicate,
Women
on Waves should be able to also help women with
unwanted pregnancies
until
12 weeks on board the ship and the organisation hopes
the Minister of
Health will now grant the license very soon.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) each
year almost
100,000
women die from illegal and unsafe abortions. Women on
Waves is
committed to
improving the reproductive health and rights of women
worldwide.
Working
together with local women’s groups in countries where
abortion is
illegal,
Women on Waves calls attention to the consequences of
unsafe and
illegal
abortions and helps women by providing information,
contraceptives,
counselling and, so far, the abortion pill for very
early pregnancies.
Women’s organizations in several countries where
abortion is illegal
have
already invited Women on Waves to visit their
countries with the ship.
In
these countries, abortion laws only apply within
territorial waters;
outside this 12-mile zone Dutch law applies on board a
Dutch ship.

The denial of the licence for a first trimester
abortion clinic by the
Dutch Minister of Health was based on the claim that
Women on Waves
could
not meet the legal requirement for a contract with a
nearby hospital
while
operating abroad. This was a purely legal argument.
Women on Waves does
in
fact have a contract, which regulates diagnostic and
therapeutic
consultation, with a hospital in Amsterdam.
The court has decided that the contract Women on Waves
signed with the
Dutch hospital fulfils the legal requirements and
overthrew the
objections
of the Minister of Health.
The contract with the hospital does not legally
require the possibility
to
provide emergency aid in case of complications because
according to
medical/ ethical standards and other regulations all
hospitals (also
outside the Netherlands) are required to provide
emergency aid in this
case. Advancements in communication have made
therapeutic and
diagnostic
consultation as required by the law, also possible
when a hospital is
not
nearby. Furthermore any complication, which is very
rare, can be
treated in
the treatment room on board the ship. The distance to
the contracted
hospital is therefore irrelevant. The judge’s decision
supports this
conclusion.
During the court case the representative of the Dutch
Minister of
Health
confirmed that the abortion services Women on Waves
provides are of
high
quality and very safe. A medical expertise report,
signed by more than
100
doctors, gynaecologists, other experts and two marine
doctors and
submitted
to the commission, has fully endorsed this conclusion.


The court also decided that the Dutch Minister of
Health did not have
any
valid legal arguments to deny Women on Waves a licence
to operate the
mobile clinic in the Netherlands.


Women on Waves, phone +31/(0) 20/ 4650-004 or +31/
(0)6-520-5256

Website: http://www.womenonwaves.org.

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