Will Abortion Boat Stir Up Tensions in Islamic Morocco?

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 2, 2012   |   12:38PM   |   Rabat, Morocco

LifeNews broke the story last week that the controversial abortion ship run by the pro-abortion group Women on Waves will be headed next to Morocco. After running around years ago in South America, the organization has brought the ship back to supposedly do drug-induced  abortions on women and unborn children off of the coast of this pro-life nation.

Abortions are not legal in this northern Africa nation. While the boat was initially set up to do surgical abortions, it has normally given women either the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug or misiprostol pills that are meant for ulcers but are bastardized by the group to cause abortions.

Now, two leading pro-life activists are concerned that the abortion boat will stir up tensions in this Islamic nation, at a time when violence and unrest in northern African nations is already at a peak.

“Because there is not enough social unrest in the Middle East, I agree it is the perfect time for the so-called “abortion ship” to stir the waters even more,” says Jill Stanek sarcastically. Stanek continues:

Women on Waves has announced it will anchor this week in a Muslim country for the first time ever: Morocco,  a country where 98.7% of the population identify as Muslims, and where the Islamic Justice and Development Party came to power in November 2011.

Women on Waves specializes in committing offshore abortions in countries where abortion is illegal.

Islam is a bit all over the map on abortion, but by and large the religion forbids it. In Morocco abortion is allowed for life or physical/mental health of the mother.

Women on Waves has decided to test the waters at an interesting time, right after Moroccan Islamists joined those in several other Muslim countries to protest the U.S. This CNBC photo, taken September 14, shows them burning an American flag outside a Moroccan mosque.

Were this a Christian missionary ship, our State Department and liberals would be demanding that it reverse course.

But since the goal of Women on Waves is to kill Moroccan children, our government will be fine with it. Who knows, we may send a war ship to protect it.

Women on Waves is a Dutch organization. Whether Moroccans will view it as an intrusion of Western influence into their culture remains to be seen. Women on Waves will release the place, date, and time of the ship’s arrival tomorrow.

Wendy Wright, with the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which monitors pro-life issues on an international level, is also concerned.

The Dutch abortion boat that has made more headlines than trips is headed to its first Muslim country. Its pro-abortion organizer Rebecca Gomperts has decided that now, in the midst of violent protests blamed on an anti-Islamic video, is the time to insult a majority-Muslim country.

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She told the news agency AFP her group was invited to Morocco by local youth activists, the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI), to pressure the country to legalize abortion.

In 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Health refused to grant a license to the converted fishing trawler. Dutch officials were unable to regularly inspect the ship’s medical and safety standards and inspectors worried about the ship’s lack of access to emergency services, according to CNSNews.com

On a previous trip to Ireland, a spokeswoman for the group claimed that, due to an overwhelming request for services, they had concentrated on education and distributing contraceptives including the morning-after pill.

Pro-Life Ireland spokesman John Smith told CNSNews his group had not protested that trip because “We felt that the purpose of the boat was to inflame feelings and engineer a confrontation between pro-life groups and the boat, and we weren’t going to fall into that trap.”

In 2004, Women on Waves’ trip to Portugal was blocked by a warship sent by Portugal’s Minister of Defense. He said the abortion boat was a threat to national security.