A brave new voice in the abortion debate
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A local screening of the film The Vessel, the story of a ship that plies international waters offering abortions.
At the screening of The Vessel film.
Erica Silverman
Erica Silverman
Should we have the abortion debate?
Absolutely! Who is making decisions for us and who has the right to make decisions for us are fundamental questions we need to explore, says Aaron Levy, founder of Slought, a burgeoning Philly cultural institution that screened The Vessel last night as part of a public dialogue on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
The Vessel (88 minutes; 2014) documents the extraordinary life and work of Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, who in 1999 managed to engineer a ship of medical professionals to provide abortions to women in offshore waters in a campaign called Women on Waves.
Not surprisingly, the floating reproductive clinic faced fierce opposition as it tried to dock in Ireland, then Poland, Spain, and several other ports.
The documentary follows the ship's path, but stalls as most films do that center around a boat. However, the film's amateur camera work makes Gomperts' grassroots struggle more palpable, as do the close-up interviews with crew members and staff.
Gomperts artfully transforms her campaign amidst religious and government protest. Today, her non-profit organization, headquartered in the Netherlands, also operates Women on Web via the Internet, which provides abortion pills that meet World Health Organization guidelines to women living in countries where abortion is illegal. The organization operates national hotlines in several counties, and collaborates with local organizations in 23 countries.
Both abortion pills, Mifepristone and Misoprostol, are available in the U.S. by prescription, and can only be used off-label for abortions.
The Vessel is an extension of Gomperts' campaign, at times mimicking a pharmaceutical commercial with animated step-by-step diagrams instructing women how to ingest the drug safely.
This brave new voice in the abortion debate changes the power structure via legal loopholes, transferring authority traditionally delegated to medical professionals to the individual woman.
At times, Gomperts seems oblivious to religious and cultural values, for example, when she strings a giant advertisement for her abortion hotline from a statue of the Virgin Mary in Ecuador. But this becomes easier to overlook as the ship receives heart-wrenching emails and voicemails. They come from young women desperate for an abortion after being raped or those fearing death from a clandestine abortion in their home country.
Penn medicine, co-sponsor and funder of the event, was also on board. A panel discussion after last night's screening was moderated by Dr. Courtney Schreiber of Penn Medicine. "Access to the full range of reproductive healthcare is limited globally and unfortunately is more and more limited in own country," she told City Paper.
Panelists included filmmaker Diana Whitten of The Vessel, journalist Emily Bazelon of The New York Times and film scholar Patricia White of Swarthmore College.
In the film, Gomperts says she launched the effort in response to the often grim fate of women living under anti-abortion laws globally. According to a WHO report published in 2012, an estimated 22 million abortions continue to be performed unsafely each year, resulting in the death of an estimated 47,000 women and disabilities for an additional five million women. Almost every one of these deaths and disabilities could have been prevented, reports the WHO.
The conversation last night touched on questions that profoundly affect how we live as health-care providers and recipients in Philadelphia, such as how are the courts being used to empower or undermine the right of women to access safe abortions?
"Slought as a cultural organization can provide a safe space for these conversations to take place," says Levy, a Penn English professor, and there is something to be learned, Levy says, from Gomperts' insightful, interdisciplinary approach as she moves across borders and institutions.
Filmgoer Kendra Hypolite, a 24-year-old graduate student in social work at Penn, accompanies women seeking abortions as a hand-holder through Planned Parenthood. "People are still working and fighting everyday here in Philly to protect our right choose," she says.
