Rebecca Gomperts is a Dutch physician and activist for women's rights, in particular abortion rights. She is the founder of Women on Waves and Women on Web, which provide reproductive health services for women in countries where they are not available. In 2013 and 2014, Gomperts was included in the BBC's 100 Women. In 2018, she founded Aid Access, which operates in the United States. A trained abortion specialist and activist, she is generally considered the first abortion rights activist to cross international borders.
Gomperts in 2017
Women on Waves (WoW) is a Dutch nongovernmental organization (NGO) created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Other services offered by WoW include contraception, individual reproductive counseling, workshops, and education about unwanted pregnancy. Workshops are conducted for lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, public health care activists, as well as for women and men to learn about contraceptive practices and non-surgical, self-induced abortion using RU-486. Services are provided on a commissioned ship that contains a specially constructed mobile clinic, the A-Portable. When WoW visits a country, women make appointments, and are taken on board the ship. The ship then sails out approximately 20 km, to international waters, where Dutch laws are in effect on board ships registered in the Netherlands. Once in international waters, the ship's medical personnel provide a range of reproductive health services that includes medical abortion.
Rebecca Gomperts, Łódź, Poland, 2017
pro-choice protestors in Mexico