June 16th, 2003
On the 16th of June, the Langenort finally sails out, after first having the medicine on board sealed in a closet (to the disbelief of the dutch customs officers) and being stranded in mud for two hours.
keep the closet closed
The rest of the Women on Waves organization leaves Holland by car, with enough equipment to set up a small office in their rented house in Wladyslawowo. By the 18th of June, the office is up and running and the security advisor from the Feminist Majority Foundation has arrived.
June 16, 2003
After an early start to complete preparations for our journey, we ask the Dutch customs to seal the abortion pills in a closet in the treatment room. The customs official is rather surprised and says he has not sealed anything for years, 'not even a bottle of alcohol or cigarettes'. When we explain to him that these medicines are illegal in the destination country, he seals the medicines while shaking his head in disbelief. At 11 o’clock it is high tide and the ship can finally set sail. The engines are fired up and Margreet orders the ropes untied, but the ship still does not move. The ship's owners have stranded the Langenort in too-shallow water. We are stuck in the mud for two hours and only a tugboat can pull us out. Finally, the Women on Waves ship with the mobile clinic on board leaves the port of Harlingen on its voyage to Poland.
June 17, 2003
Gunilla, Jeannette, Lotte and Rebecca drive to Poland in a car loaded with all the equipment we need to set up a small office in the house that we rented in Wladyslawowo. The trip takes one day. The rest of the Dutch volunteers will come by train or plane.
Press team, Sladjana: �As the deadline approaches the stress levels rise. I start suffering from amnesia and anxiety. What if there are some 'antis' with guns? What if our bodyguards don’t sympathise with us but are in fact members of the anti-abortion movement?�
June 18, 2003
Rebecca picks up Margie (our security advisor from the Feminist Majority Foundation) from the airport and together they visit some lawyers. Although we have already established some contact with legal advisors it is still difficult to find an attorney that wants to help us. They are all afraid of losing clientele or of negatively affecting their careers, but we will definitely need a lawyer to be on standby once the ship arrives. At last we find a professional law firm willing to help. They advise us not to say anything about abortion services on Polish territory even though it is not clear what law we might be breaking. Because everything is so unpredictable we decide to follow this advice. How can women living in this country ever find out where to go? It is hard for us to even imagine the desperation they must feel. We instruct the web team in the Netherlands to remove all the texts from the Polish site that say that we will provide the abortion pill. We also adapt the instructions for the hotline team. As of now they can not say that we can provide abortion services, they can only ask a woman about her last period and if she has a passport to join the sexual health workshop at sea. It is ridiculous because the public knows and understands what the ship's visit is about. As an act of precaution we decide to tape all hotline conversations and counselling sessions on board. This is definitely different than Ireland.
