Women's Abortion Boats Docks in Dublin Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Thursday June 14 9:56 PM ET (via Yahoo) Abortion Boat Docks in Dublin By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - A boat carrying doctors seeking to help Irish women obtain abortions docked Thursday night in Dublin, capital of a predominantly Catholic country where the practice remains outlawed. The Aurora, a 130-foot floating abortion clinic, sailed up Dublin's River Liffey shortly before nightfall, a half-day earlier than expected. The maneuver ensured that the boat avoided anti-abortion groups that had vowed to confront it with their own rival vessels. The two doctors and a nurse aboard plan to administer abortion pills in international waters outside the 12-mile territorial limit of Ireland. The activists, who sailed from Amsterdam on Monday, said they want to throw the spotlight on a situation that forces Irish women who want abortions to travel abroad, mostly to England. Government statistics put the number of Irish women who did so last year at 6,388. The group's dockside spokeswoman, Joke van Kampen, said they had come `to support the Irish groups who have been fighting for this for years and years and years. We consider the lack of safe and accessible abortions as a violation of the human rights of women.'' She said the boat was likely to stay in Dublin for the next week, ferrying clients into international waters as needed, then would sail for Ireland's southwest second city of Cork. Although their vessel includes a makeshift operating room, the activists say they plan to offer only the miscarriage-inducing RU-486 abortion pill to women whose fetuses are less than 10 weeks old. But Dutch authorities say the activists may face criminal prosecution upon their return, and maximum 4 1/2-year jail terms, for operating without a medical license. The boat has reopened the often-dormant debate on legalizing abortion in Ireland, an issue left in legal limbo by all major political parties since a landmark 1992 Supreme Court judgment. The court ruled that a 14-year-old girl, who had been barred by a lower court from traveling to Britain for an abortion, should be allowed to go on the grounds she might otherwise commit suicide. The girl, who had been raped by a neighbor, ended up suffering a miscarriage. That judgment also called for lawmakers to make abortion available within Ireland for cases in which the mother's life was at risk, including suicide. It spurred a referendum later that year asking voters to approve legal abortions when the mother's life was at risk - except for threatened suicide. That option was rejected. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytfem-06.14.01-22:54:49-17232