A short explanation of our legal situation by Els Swaab, lawyer of Women on Waves, delivered at the press conference of august 23, 2004.
According to the Dutch law of Termination of Pregnancy, (the WAZ) abortion treatment is only legal in clinics that have been granted a license by the Dutch minister of Health, Safety and Sports.
Women on Waves applied for such a license in 2001 to be able to perform first trimester abortions in its mobile treatment room.
This application was denied by the dutch minister.
After receiving a protest followed by appeal initiated by Women on Waves, the Court of Law of Amsterdam reversed the juridical verdict on June 1st, 2004, and ruled that the minister would have to make a new decision in which she would have to consider amongst other factors:
-the fact that the mobile treatment room meets all legal requirements;
-the fact that Women on Waves is constantly in foreign territory;
-the legal requirement (in the almost twenty five year old WAZ) that an abortion clinic needs to have a support agreement with a hospital "in the neighborhood" for consultation in the diagnostic and therapeutic field. "In the neighborhood" is to be interpreted with consideration to the available advanced and still advancing communication technology.
On July 9th, 2004, the dutch minister decided that after three years of juridical battle, Women on Waves would finally receive the license in which it would be acknowledged as an official WAZ-clinic. However, the dutch minister appended one condition to this decision, the condition that the mobile treatment room could not be used outside of a 25 kilometer radius of the Slotervaart Hospital. In this ruling the minister did not consider the excellent accessibility of and to the Women on Waves ship via mobile telephones, radio marine telephones and satellite which would always enable communication with the Slotervaart Hospital at any time or place.
By now Women on Waves has appealed this condition in the Law Court of Amsterdam. This appeal will be processed within three to six months. For the voyage which is to start today, Women on Waves unsuccessfully tried to obtain a suspension of the condition. The provisional judge ruled that Women on Waves would have to wait for the outcome of the appeal, and for the current voyage would again have to limit itself to very early abortions.
Even though Women on Waves is convinced that the condition appended by the Dutch minister cannot hold ground, it is most disappointed by this ruling. Because of this ruling, many pregnant women who are forced to choose abortion in Portugal will not be able to receive help from Women on Waves, and therefore could be driven into the hands of illegal operators. Which is even more grave once one is aware that these illegal abortions are often unsafe and the women engaging in them have high risks of dying or having severe health complications, and meanwhile, according to the WAZ license Women on Waves have received, the mobile treatment center is fully qualified for safe first trimester abortions.
translated by Nadya Peek
