Here's a crackpot idea, abortion clinics on barges offshore in the Gulf from Mississippi,Texas

[Walleye]

Alabama and Florida. I remember when I went to Mississippi to cover the aftermath of Katrina, the huge gambling barges that had washed up on the beach. Of course one of the first things they did when they reassembled was to legalize onshore gambling. But they had gotten around the state’s gambling laws by anchoring barges offshore. Would be easy to provide transportation from the beach to the clinic. Crazy idea?

[Solly Mack]

1. Not crackpot, it already happens in many places.

Board the ship, head out to international waters, procedure done by those qualified, sail back.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Puts a new spin on medical tourism. . . . nt

[Solly Mack]

13. Yes, it does.

Women have been preparing and engaging in workarounds for decades. Still will need to get women to the dock and water-taxis, so to speak, and they'll still need funds, but it is doable in America.

Course, discretion is needed.

Easier accomplished in states on the water, naturally. Also trickier in the case of states such as Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Georgia, for examples.

[mcar]

28. IIRC, that's what they did in Ireland

till they repealed their abortion ban.

[Solly Mack]

29. They did indeed. Do it in Poland, too.

[mjvpi]

41. Cruse ships. Comfort and class for every woman who makes a hard decision in the course of ......

…….living consciously. I’m a man who s feeling seasick just posting this, so speaking empathetically, codify equal rights for women, including bodily autonomy. No woman should have to risk seasickness to work with their doctor.

John Fetterman Pennsylvania
Tim Ryan Ohio
Who ever you support over Ron Johnson.

Money , money, money

[vlyons]

2. Excellent idea

They would need 24x7 protection from terrorists wanting to sink them.

[WiVoter]

22. Yes

A great idea!

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. I like it

[Raven123]

4. Maybe, but I wouldn't advertise it.

[Timeflyer]

5. Don't spill beans--already in works

I bet bored anti-choice protesters will show up to harass around these barges. What else are they going to do with all their threats and jeers and plastic fetus dolls now?

[in2herbs]

6. Then, IMO, a security force armed with AR15s should greet these ant-choice protestors. nt

[TigressDem]

8. Wearing kevlar vests and bandoliers with at least ten 100 round magazines. nt

[Vogon_Glory]

24. Probably the a**hats who parade around in T***p regattas n/t

[localroger]

7. Problem is, the gambling barges weren't technically offshore

Gambling was specifically legalized only in vessels floating in a navigable waterway in order to confine it to the river and coast, to placate anti-gambling forces which were mostly concentrated in the more rural middle of the state. They were still under state law and state regulation, both of the gambling operation and normal law enforcement. Most states control the waters out to 3 nautical miles, with Texas and Florida claiming 9. Beyond that to 200 miles it's still US waters but under Federal control. So your offshore clinics would have to be a pretty good ferry trip out to evade state law.

On edit: You could probably run a service on an actual ship that cruises out beyond state waters and then does business, just as cruise ships with casinos can only open the casino once the ship is far enough from land.

[lindysalsagal]

10. I wonder if the Indian nations would take up this cause?

Worth a try.

[Oppaloopa]

23. Was a story line on Yellowstone. Their medical clinics only did abortion if you agreed to

sterilization That is what happened to Beth . I know this was just a story line

[Doc Sportello]

26. Not just a story line but a fact

And they were done without the women's consent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_of_Native_American_women

[ewagner]

15. "...actual ship that cruises out beyond state waters..."

Think you got that right.

[yellowdogintexas]

34. For some, a 3 day cruise could cost less than traveling to a

legal state, depending on distance from a port (It is a long haul from many parts of Texas to the Gulf)

However, Texas does have a very long border with Mexico.

Since 2021, abortion is no longer a crime in Mexico, although its legalisation varies by state. On 7 September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court unanimously ruled that penalising abortion is unconstitutional, setting an important precedent across the whole country.

I know a woman who obtained a (then highly illegal)abortion in Mexico City back in the 1960s. According to her sister, the woman was assaulted by the doctor before the procedure.

[COL Mustard]

36. Maybe using some of those oligarchs' seized mega-yachts?

We're thinking outside the box today!

[Walleye]

42. I really like that idea. They're certainly big enough

[COL Mustard]

44. And comfy enough

That would be the icing on the cake!

[Walleye]

45. Well thinking about that does make me smile a little bit

[Buckeyeblue]

9. And for landlocked states what about using federal land?

Do states have jurisdiction over federally owned land?

[plimsoll]

19. These days, you have to ask if the Feds have jurisdiction over federal lands.

Think Amon Bundy.

[COL Mustard]

37. Set up clinics on Native lands.

Sovereign nations. I've already seen one suggestion to do that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. It's not crackpot. It might happen. . . nt

[SickOfTheOnePct]

14. Not at all a crackpot idea

Only downside I see is that states could most likely bar those ships/barges from docking in order to embark/disembark.

[BonnieJW]

16. On MSNBC yesterday

A guest said abortion services should be available in every federal facility in every state. But I think you have to abolish the Hyde amendment

[2naSalit]

31. +1

[Escurumbele]

17. Great idea. Pass it around, let some investor pick up on it.

It is to be expected that the crazies will be around the ship trying to block women from getting on the ship though, and who knows what other bright ideas the fanatics will have, like kill everyone on the ship because "ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS"...something to think about.

[paleotn]

18. At this point, nothings off the table.

[plimsoll]

20. I think the problem will be getting people on and off the barges.

Outside the territorial boundaries of the state they'd be safe, but they still need to get home. Plenty of these states seem to be trying to pass these (I use the phrase to draw a parallel and I apologize upfront) Fugitive Slut Acts, so getting them and any staff home may be a real problem.

I'd like a lawyer to weigh in on this, but I think any attacks on the barges would be acts of piracy and the Navy and Coast Guard would be obliged to offer assistance.

[vlyons]

40. There are plenty of private fishing boats and recreational sail boats that would be happy to take

someone to and from a medical barge. Just stick a few fishing rods on the stern, and whose to say it's not a fishing trip.

[Retrograde]

46. And that's the main problem

women will have to get to these barges either by boat or helicopter (expensive!) from ports in Florida or Alabama or Mississippi or Louisiana or Texas, most of which will pass Fugitive Slut Acts (I am so stealing this phrase), where they will be arrested on return ("on return" because I don't think the forced birthers have as yet figured out how they can arrest someone for intent - but I'm sure they're working on it)

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Too predictable

Lifers will know where to target

[groundloop]

30. We need to agree on a term other than "pro-lifer" or "lifer" for those idiots.....

If nothing else the right wing is very good at manipulating words to make their ideologies sound reasonable.

[COL Mustard]

38. Forced Birthers

That's what they are. They don't give a shit about the child after birth. Otherwise they'd be working to expand Medicare for all, free childcare, universal pre-K, etc. I'm not holding my breath.

[Trueblue Texan]

25. I thought of that too...

And don't forget the Port of Galveston, Texas.

[Vogon_Glory]

27. Earning foreign currency

The boats sail out of Havana and stay outside of US territorial waters. And why not, it’s not like they’ve got much more to fear from DeSantis, the Florida Republican Party and South Florida’s Cuban emigres.

[evolves]

32. This already exists, and has for some time:

https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/493/abortion-on-our-ship

[Walleye]

43. Wow. I did not know about that. Thanks for the link. We need a whole fleet of these

[Lonestarblue]

33. What will be set up in blue states is the abortion equivalent of the Underground Railroad.

Ways will be found to help women. Unfortunately, poor women will suffer the most because many of them already have children and they will not have the resources or possibly even enough time off from a job to seek an abortion in another state.

The sad thing is that, like Prohibition, criminals and charlatans will also pop out of the woodwork to defraud women. Rather than women ordering the medication abortion pills themselves, clinics in blue states need to keep a large supply from reputable dealers on hand to ship directly to women.

Abortion has been around since people have been around. The religious right is giddy with their success now, but there will be a backlash eventually. My hope is that more and more young people leave this form of religion behind, letting it die out. To use Grover Norquist’s comment about government, the idea is to reduce white evangelicalism so it’s small enough to drown in a bathtub.

[Ilsa]

35. Norguist: reduce govt so it's small enough to exist between the stirrups. nt

[dumbcat]

39. The concept has been around for a while

One of the major goals of Seasteading is to be just far enough offshore to escape the regulation of other countries (political entities) and be a self-governing sovereign state. There are a lot of issues involved, and a lot of controversy about the topic, but one of the major concepts was to be able to perform medical procedures in an offshore Seastead that would be illegal in most places.

It's a very controversial but fascinating subject if anyone would like to look into it:

[link:https://www.seasteading.org/|