To international waters

June 26, 2003
Today the ship will sail out to international waters with, for the first time, 11 Polish women on board. Our main priority is to protect the identity of the women on board. Volunteers distract the antis by constantly walking back and forth past the gate, wearing sunglasses and hoods. The antis have announced they will try to take photographs and later publish images of all the people visiting the ship. The volunteers in disguise confuse them and they do not manage to get an accurate count of all of the visitors. When all the passengers are on board, the ship goes through customs. This process takes hours. Rebecca begins taking sonograms. Finally the ship leaves; Gunilla is the doctor on board. A small ship of the anti- abortion campaigners tries to follow the Langenort out of the port, but can not keep up and returns half an hour later. While the ship is on its way to international waters, Juul and Gunilla give a workshop on contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy for all the women on board the ship. Margreet announces the ship is in international waters and the individual consultations with the doctor can begin. The exact position on the GPS is filmed so that we will be able to prove that the ship was indeed outside territorial waters.
Then the seal on the medicine chest is broken and the necessary medicines are taken out. After Gunilla counsels the Polish women, the ship sails back to Poland.

The Women on Waves volunteers and the lawyer want to enter the secured harbour to wait for the ship, but the security guards from the harbour suddenly decide not to allow us entry. We end up having to force our way in.

When the ship returns to the harbour, the medicines are recounted and resealed by the increasingly co-operative customs officials, who realise they will have to get used to this procedure for the duration of the ship's visit. An hour later the media announces that 12 abortion pills and some other medicines are missing.

Hotline team, Yvette: "We meet with the Polish women at different points in the town and bring them with security vans to the ship, trying to provide them safety and anonymity. Before boarding I tell the women to be careful and not to talk much about their personal stories with the rest of the women aboard. The ship arrives back late in the evening and after all the procedures of counting the pills and so on, the women leave the ship and are driven away safely. Rebecca’s father drives as well. In the car I have the opportunity to speak with them a bit, asking them how they felt. All of them are very grateful and thank us many times for the help. Some of them are just in time to take their train back home.�

Nurse, Juul: "It is the first day we can sail out. We enter the restricted area of the port together with a large group of women and volunteers. I see a woman crawling through the gates between the railway station and the harbour. She calls out to us and somebody helps her. It turns out that she is supposed to sail with us as well.

Everyone onboard enters the treatment room for a sonogram, even the Polish volunteers that are only there to provide translations. This causes a lot of confusion and the volunteers try to explain to Rebecca, who is doing the sonograms that they are not pregnant. Rebecca writes the results of the exam with the sonogram on a card and puts it in a closed envelope. All the women are instructed to give the envelope to Gunilla, the gynaecologist, once the ship is in international waters. On the way to international waters, the passengers receive training in safe sex and contraception.
The captain announces we are in international waters and the seal of the cabin is broken while filming the Global Positioning System (GPS) as proof that we are outside territorial waters. Gunilla counsels the women in one of the cabins."

Translator, Justyna: "Our first voyage into international waters takes place on my 24th birthday and celebrating my birthday by sailing out on the Langenort is indeed a special treat. For me it is also a reflection of the changes that have taken place in my life the past few years. Here I am, 24, sailing out on the infamous "abortion ship", happy and excited that for one of the few times in my life I am absolutely sure that what I'm doing is the right thing. The border patrol and customs officials, who checked all our passports as we were leaving, are the first to notice the date in my passport and congratulate me. On our way back from international waters, all the women on board the ship organise an impromptu birthday party with cookies and drinks and sing "Happy Birthday" in three languages!
Then the ship returns to the harbour. I observe the custom officials' reactions as they are checking our passports and bags. They are suspicious. They look each one of us over very carefully, staring at us as they check each passport photo, looking for signs of some "dark secret" we might be hiding from them. Clearly, they want to know who was there for an abortion. And they just can not tell."

Some hotline messages:
- M. from Krakow, last menstruation on 13.05
- An anonymous woman asks for pill.
- One particularly distressed woman leaves a message and we phone her back. She is 3 months pregnant, has no food for tomorrow for her 2 other kids. She wants an abortion, but will have to raise at least 1000 zlotys (approximately 250euros ). She is very poor, from a small village where nobody knows about her pregnancy, She is afraid of her husband's reaction. We cannot help her. She has phoned us twice today out of sheer desperation and asks us to send her the pills. She has been jumping from the furniture to cause miscarriage. She cries on the phone, begging us for help.
- A man calls, 25 years old. His girlfriend J. isn't willing to talk with us on the phone. Her last period was 15.05. We advise her to first take a pregnancy test.
- Anonymous woman from Slupsk, 20 years old, 5 weeks pregnant, asks if we can help her. We give her all the information we can but she doesn’t contact us after that.
- A., 20 year old woman from Slupsk, last menstruation 12.05. She doesn’t have a passport, will try to arrange to get one and will call us back.
- I., 23 years old from Warsaw, last period on 17.05, wants to take part in the workshop.

Polish Press Agency, 26-06-2003: “There are no grounds to arrest any person involved with the abortion ship Langenort. This, according to the general prosecutor Karol Napierski who was responding to questions from MP Strak from the LPR. Strak claims however that one can buy the abortion pill from Women on Waves by calling the number of the hotline. “It is well known that these pills are sold for 1000 zlotys in Wladyslawowo," said Strak.

The Warsaw Voice, 26-06-2003: “Never before has a small ship caused so much political and social commotion as the Dutch Cutter Langenort"

Polish Press Agency, 26-06-2003: “There are no grounds to arrest any person involved with the abortion ship Langenort. This, according to the general prosecutor Karol Napierski who was responding to questions from MP Strak from the LPR. Strak claims however that one can buy the abortion pill from Women on Waves by calling the number of the hotline. “It is well known that these pills are sold for 1000 zlotys in Wladyslawowo," said Strak.

The Warsaw Voice, 26-06-2003: “Never before has a small ship caused so much political and social commotion as the Dutch Cutter Langenort"

Translator, Justyna: '' "Our first voyage into international waters takes place on my 24th birthday and celebrating my birthday by sailing out on the Langenort is indeed a special treat. For me it is also a reflection of the changes that have taken place in my life the past few years. Here I am, 24, sailing out on the infamous "abortion ship", happy and excited that for one of the few times in my life I am absolutely sure that what I'm doing is the right thing. The border patrol and customs officials, who checked all our passports as we were leaving, are the first to notice the date in my passport and congratulate me. On our way back from international waters, all the women on board the ship organise an impromptu birthday party with cookies and drinks and sing "Happy Birthday" in three languages!
Then the ship returns to the harbour. I observe the custom officials' reactions as they are checking our passports and bags. They are suspicious. They look each one of us over very carefully, staring at us as they check each passport photo, looking for signs of some "dark secret" we might be hiding from them. Clearly, they want to know who was there for an abortion. And they just can not tell."''