Abortion ship heads for Ireland

A Dutch medical ship with facilities for carrying out on-board abortions was today due to set sail for Ireland.

The Women on Waves vessel, called the Sea of Change, is due to dock in Dublin on Thursday and will provide contraceptives and family planning information, while ‘‘safe, legal abortions’’ can be carried out outside Irish territorial waters ‘‘where medically appropriate’’, a spokesman said.

The 100ft floating clinic, on its maiden voyage, has an operating table and surgical equipment within a former container on its deck.

It is understood the Amsterdam-based charitable organisation has applied for a berth at Dublin’s Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, on the River Liffey, but it is also reported the group is considering ferrying women to the ship while anchored offshore.

All medical activity conducted while the vessel, also due to visit Cork, is docked in Ireland will be legal under Irish law, while its offshore activities will be legal under Dutch law, the spokesperson added.

Abortion is currently illegal in the Irish republic under 19th-century British legislation.

However, in a landmark ruling in 1992, the state’s supreme court upheld the right of a raped 14-year-old threatening to commit suicide to have an abortion. And in a referendum that year voters decided to reject plans to ban abortions for women threatening suicide.

A cross-party committee of Irish MPs which reported in November failed to agree on further constitutional and legal changes.

One in 10 pregnancies in the country ends in foreign abortion clinics, mostly in the UK.

Cathleen O’Neill, a spokeswoman for the Women on Waves Ireland, said: ‘‘This is a step in the right direction.

‘‘What we want is an end to politicians avoiding the issue. The Government should provide for legal abortion in Ireland as soon as possible’’.