One day quickly, individuals in states which have outlawed abortion might be able to take to the ocean. A California OB-GYN is at present organizing and fundraising for an offshore, floating abortion clinic within the Gulf of Mexico. The clinic boat can be strategically positioned in federal waters, to keep away from the jurisdiction of state abortion bans.

The proposed undertaking known as Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes (PRROWESS), and is led by Dr. Meg Autry, an OB-GYN and professor on the University of California, San Francisco. Autry had been engaged on the concept of an offshore clinic for some time, and planning accelerated following the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade final month, in line with a report from NBC Bay Area News.

“Part of the reason we’re working on this project so hard is because wealthy people in our country are always going to have access [to abortions], so once again it’s a time now where poor, people of color, marginalized individuals, are gonna suffer —and by suffering I mean like lives lost,” Autry instructed the NBC affiliate.

And it’s true: extra individuals will die with out authorized entry to abortion. Medication abortions with misoprostol might be safely self-managed at residence. However, there are different risks to proscribing abortions: charges of being pregnant problems, home violence, and unsafe surgical abortions are all known to rise the place abortion entry is minimize off.

People in southern and coastal Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas are the first group that PRROWESS intends to serve. As the undertaking web site identified, individuals in these areas “may be closer to the coast than to facilities in bordering states where abortion and reproductive health care are available.”

Federal waters start three nautical miles off the coast of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi (though non permanent legal guidelines have previously extended that boundary), and 9 miles off the coast of Texas. Since Roe was repealed, all 4 states have enacted total abortion bans.

Currently, individuals residing in states with abortion bans have the theoretical choice of flying out of state to entry care elsewhere. However, PRROWESS goals to be an alternative choice, ideally one much less time and value intensive for some than long-distance air journey.

“Flying out-of-state often requires patients to secure child care and time off work for multiple days, and may not be an option at all for people who are undocumented. PRROWESS will offer easier and faster access to services for those individuals,” stated the project FAQs.

The clinic is at present fundraising, but when and when it turns into operational, it might provide surgical abortions as much as 14 weeks, contraception and emergency contraception (like Plan B), STI testing and remedy, and social work and authorized assist providers. Ideally, receiving care on the floating clinic can be very low price or free for sufferers, totally funded by donations, in line with the PRROWESS web site.

Some particulars have but to be ironed out. Autry told the Associated Press that the undertaking staff continues to be making an attempt to work out the place the boat would launch from and learn how to finest transport sufferers to and from the ship. PRROWESS expects to face authorized challenges from Gulf states, however they’re ready to combat again. Autry instructed NBC Bay Area News that they’ve already begun assembling a authorized staff.

PRROWESS isn’t the primary instance of advocates and consultants calling for abortion havens that circumvent state legal guidelines by deferring to federal protections. Representatives Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have known as for abortion clinics to open in National Parks—an thought which Senator Elizabeth Warren echoed her help for.

Whether it’s in federal waters or on federal lands, we’re headed in direction of a future the place abortion suppliers need to get inventive to fight the coordinated efforts to restrict reproductive rights.