"Respect existence or expect resistance!" the organization says PRROWESS on their website, led by San Francisco gynecologist Meg Autry, seeks to bring reproductive care services to southern U.S. states and provide abortion services on a ship sailing in federal waters.
The board-certified obstetrician at the University of California, San Francisco's Mount Zion Women's Health Center hopes to enable people in states with restrictive abortion laws bordering the Gulf of Mexico to obtain necessary reproductive health services.
And while he was already working on bringing the project to life, Autry said his plans accelerated with the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
In a interview with NBC Bay Area, Autry noted that people living in southern areas of states with restrictive abortion laws, such as Texas and Louisiana, are actually closer to the coast than nearby states with more access to abortion. Plus, it's less expensive to hop on a boat than to buy a plane ticket to another state.
"It's my life's work," he told the outlet.
“Part of the reason we’re working on this bill so hard is because wealthy people in our country are always going to have access to abortions, so again, now is a time when poor people, people of color, marginalized people, are going to suffer, and by suffer I mean lives lost,” Autry said.
In an interview, he said the vessel will operate in federal waters, nine miles off the coast of Texas and three miles off the coast of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, where it can evade those states' abortion restrictions.
He also said that PRROWESS will be responsible for transporting the patients to the ship, which will vary depending on their origin, once they have passed a pre-selection process.
Once on board, Autry said she and a team of licensed medical professionals will offer surgical abortions up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
PRROWESS will also offer other point-of-care gynecological services, such as testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
"The project is funded by philanthropic funds and patient care is needs-based, so most people will pay little or nothing for services," Autry said.
PRROWESS notes that it is committed to providing a safe haven for people in states where their rights are severely impacted by legislation that limits their access to reproductive health care.
The organization stresses that no matter how excessively harsh measures targeting reproductive rights become, "together we can and will reassert control over our bodies and lives."
It is worth noting that the project requests donations that can be made directly through its website to continue its goal of providing access to reproductive health to those whose bodily autonomy has been restricted.
Once they reach the necessary goal to begin operating, Autry said they will put the captain, crew and medical team on board to set sail.
Autry and his team maintain that the process is legal in federal waters. However, they expect states to oppose it at every turn, so they have already turned to several lawyers to help them in their mission.
The project expects to be operating in the Gulf of Mexico for approximately 3 weeks of each month, with flexibility built in depending on demand, weather conditions and vessel maintenance.
She said that if the floating clinic project does not come to fruition, the remaining funds will be distributed to other projects addressing access to abortion.
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