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An OBYGN doctor from the Bay Area is building a reproductive healthcare center on a ship that will help patients living in restricted areas obtain abortion services.
According to reports, the floating clinic, which is called PRROWESS, will provide abortion services to several southern states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, where access to the procedure is banned or severely limited. The ship will sail on federal waters, just nine miles from the coast of Texas and three from the coast of Alabama and Louisiana— where it can evade state abortion restrictions.
In an interview with NBC Bay Area, Dr. Meg Autry, who is leading the ambitious initiative explained that people living in outlawed states like Texas and Louisiana are closer to the Gulf Coast. The ship will make abortion care more accessible for patients and reduce the need for expensive travel.
Autry, who also works as a professor at UCSF, has been planning to launch PRROWESS for years. However, after Roe V. Wade was overturned, the health care official said her plans were accelerated.
“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,” shared Autry, who calls herself “a lifelong educator” and “a lifelong career abortion advocate.”
PRROWESS will transfer patients to the ship after they pass a pre-screening process.
“The project is being funded with philanthropy and the patient’s care is on a needs basis, so most individuals will pay little to nothing for services,” Dr. Meg Autry added.
Abortion became severely restricted in Alabama and Louisiana After The Fall Of Roe
More than 100 abortion appointments were canceled at West Alabama’s Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade. Consequently, the clinic was forced to send patients to Atlanta, where at least for now, abortion remains legal. Many of the patients desperate for abortion care lived out of state and were forced to travel an additional three to four hours to receive services, CNBC reported. Now, under the new state law, abortions can only be performed if the mother’s life is at risk. There are no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
In Louisiana, patients are only eligible to receive the procedure in the case of ectopic pregnancy which occurs when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus. Performing an abortion under any circumstance can lead to serious jail time of up to “15 years depending on gestational age”, REVOLT TV noted.
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