*A doctor has proposed plans to open a floating health clinic in the Gulf of Mexico where women can get abortions.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, said the idea of a floating abortion clinic in federal Gulf waters amounts to “something that someone is throwing against the wall to see if it sticks.”
As reported by CBS News, a nonprofit called PRROWESS, which stands for Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes, is working to raise money to bring it to floating fruition, according to Futurism. The clinic “will offer reproductive health and wellness services, including contraception as well as surgical abortion up to 14 weeks,” the outlet writes.
“The vessel will be Coast Guard inspected and will have helicopter access for transport and emergencies,” the organization says.
READ MORE: Biden Has Signed Executive Order Aimed At Safeguarding Abortion Rights
“We have to create options and be thoughtful and creative to help people in restrictive states get the health care they deserve,” Bay Area-based OB-GYN Dr. Meg Autry said in an interview with the Associated Press.
The floating abortion clinic proposal comes weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, paving the way for many states to restrict or ban access to abortions.
“This is all about bodily autonomy and choice, and so people have a right to be pregnant and also not to have a pregnancy,” Dr. Autry, of the University of California—San Francisco, told CBS San Francisco.
“People that care deeply about access to reproductive rights know that we have to be innovative and creative in order for patients to be able to continue to have access,” she told CBS San Francisco. “We know internationally that when access is limited or abortion is illegal, patients die.”
The clinic will operate in federal waters so it will not be restricted by state laws.
Dr. Autry hopes to open the floating clinic in about a year.
“There’s operational, logistics, there’s the whole idea of maritime law and then there’s obviously security, there’s liability, I mean the challenges are countless,” Autry said.
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