SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A Bay Area OB-GYN's plan to launch a floating abortion clinic in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico faces more legal risks on land than at sea, according to legal experts.
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Two law professors told KCBS Radio on Friday that the "PRROWESS," the name of Dr. Meg Autry's planned vessel that would reside in the Gulf of Mexico near states that have banned abortion, would be able to operate there legally because there is no federal law banning abortion. The "PRROWESS" – which stands for "Protecting Reproductive Rights Of Women Endangered By State Statutes" – plans to offer abortions after 13 weeks, as well as other reproductive health care.
Mary Ziegler, a prominent historian of abortion in the U.S. and a law professor at UC Davis, said the "PRROWESS" follows the precedent Dutch abortion rights organization Women on Waves set when it first offered offshore abortion services to Irish patients in 2001. Since the boat launched from the Netherlands, it could operate under Dutch law – which doesn't outlaw abortion – once the ship reached international waters.
The "tricky part" for the "PRROWESS," according to Ziegler, will occur on state land and water.
Federal waters begin nine nautical miles from the coast of Texas, but the state's abortion ban passed last year allows Texas residents to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. A person driving a patient to a dock, or a ferry captain transporting a patient from shore to the "PRROWESS," could conceivably face legal consequences.
“The closer you get to states that are criminalizing abortion, the higher risk you are going to see that people who are helping get swept into criminal prohibitions," Ziegler told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart on Friday night. "And states are certainly going to try because, obviously, there's gonna be a lot of frustration in the anti-abortion movement if Roe v. Wade is overturned and you can’t actually stop abortions from happening."
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said the White House has similar concerns about whether abortion-banning states can prosecute residents for having the procedure outside of the state.
As part of an executive order Biden signed on Friday, the president directed the attorney general and White House counsel to seek out volunteer lawyers who could provide patients, providers and third parties "lawfully seeking" abortion services with pro bono legal assistance.
Levenson said she thinks "it’s unlikely" a state can punish someone for leaving the state to receive care, but "it’s not an answered question" and the Supreme Court, which overturned constitutional protections for abortion two weeks ago on Friday, would be the one to answer it.
Autry, for her part, told KCBS Radio's Doug Sovern in an interview on Friday that, after consulting with a legal team consisting of criminal, maritime and reproductive rights lawyers, her team is confident in the ship's legality after "extensive investigation and research."
The vice chair of graduate medical education and continuing medical education for UCSF's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences estimated it will take a year and up to $20 million in private donations to launch the ship, citing the costs of patient care, security and liability insurance.
Ziegler, the author of "Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present," said Autry and the "PRROWESS" must also be prepared to ensure "digital privacy and other types of privacy" for patients, providers and third parties to minimize the risk of legal consequences in states surrounding the ship.
"I don't think there's much that can be done, as long as Joe Biden is in the White House, about what happens on the 'PRROWESS,' " she said. "I think … the tricky question is: Are there legal consequences depending on what happens between the getting people from point A to point B, right? Are there legal consequences for people based on what happens onshore getting people to the boat?”
"And I think that will really be where the rub is if this is a successful model in terms of access, or not," she added.
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