Dutch abortion ship to fight gov't travel ban

A Dutch floating abortion clinic banned from sailing abroad after controversial visits to Ireland and Poland pledged on Friday to take the Dutch government to court within weeks to lift the restriction.

The clinic, which offers the abortion pill in international waters to women in countries where it is illegal or more restricted than the Netherlands, was told by the government last week that it could only work within 25 km of Amsterdam.

"The state secretary has basically said we cannot work abroad anymore and this of course defeats the object of our campaign," said Rebecca Gomperts, the founding doctor of the Women on Waves Foundation, which manages the clinic.

The center-right government granted the clinic a permit to provide first trimester abortions but for the first time stipulated it must stay within 25 km of the Dutch capital in order to be able to consult with a nearby hospital. Women on Waves argues that modern technologies like satellite phones and the Internet enable it to communicate with any hospital while on the open seas.

"We are appealing and we want to go to court within a couple of weeks," Gomperts told Reuters.

The foundation says a woman dies every five minutes somewhere in the world because of an illegal or unsafe abortion, and that its doctors provide counseling and abortions in international waters where Dutch ships operate under Dutch law.

"These are totally unnecessary deaths and they can be prevented," said Gomperts, who founded Women on Waves in 1999.

"As a doctor it is totally unacceptable to know that you can help somebody but you have to turn them away. You know they have nowhere to go except to a backstreet abortionist, or to do it themselves. They risk their health and their lives," she added.

Women on Waves, which leases ships to carry its clinic on campaigns, sailed to Ireland in 2001 and Poland in 2003. Both countries have an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population and some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world.

The Netherlands currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the newly enlarged European Union, which includes predominantly Catholic countries like Portugal, Spain, Poland, Ireland and Italy.