The Dutch organization Women on Waves, whose representative Rebecca Gomperts visited Malta in 2007 with a view to offering her services on the island, has anchored a boat offering abortions off the Spanish port of Valencia circumventing Spanish abortion laws and prompting protest from anti-abortion activists.
The boat, floating in international waters on Friday, offered terminations under the Netherlands’ more liberal abortion laws.

About 100 members of the Spanish anti-abortion group Provida assembled in the port to protest the arrival, some shouting “assassins” and “no to abortion”, Spanish media said.

Police formed a barrier between them and the hundreds of pro-abortion activists who gathered at the port. During Rebecca Gompert’s visit to Malta, the number of pro-abortion activists who attended the open discussion organized by lawyer and politician Emmy Bezzina was close to none.

Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985 but only for certain cases – up to 12 weeks of pregnancy after a rape; up to 22 weeks in the case of malformation of the foetus; and at any point if the pregnancy represents a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman.

Spain’s Socialist government last month said it plans to introduce a law that will offer greater legal protection for women who wish to have an abortion and doctors who carry out the procedure.

The Women on Waves boat also visited Ireland in 2001, Poland in 2003 and Portugal in 2004, sparking protests in each country.