This Abortion Boat Sounds Fishy

[Nevilledog]

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susan rinkunas
@sueonthetown
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When I heard there was an abortion boat in operation in the Gulf Coast, I reached out for an interview. It turned into one of the weirdest stories I've ever reported.

my scoop for @Jezebel:

jezebel.com
This Abortion Boat Sounds Fishy
How did a man with no experience in abortion care launch a service for offshore procedures, just weeks after the fall of Roe v. Wade?
9:38 AM · Aug 17, 2022

https://jezebel.com/this-abortion-boat-sounds-fishy-1849420727

In the two dystopian months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights supporters have been desperate for any positive news on the abortion front. Stories are pouring out by the day of pregnant people forced into unimaginable situations. So when a mysterious abortion boat appeared out of nowhere off the coast of Texas in July, claiming to have already provided dozens of abortions in federal waters, a lot of people needed it to be a hero.

That boat, run by a for-profit company called Abort Offshore, claimed it could offer abortions up to 20 weeks in the Gulf of Mexico, immune to state laws. And it started doing so, apparently, at a rapid clip: On July 23, Abort Offshore announced that it had done 34 abortions as a test. By August 3, it claimed to have provided more than 100 procedures. And just 10 days later, the company tweeted that it had performed nearly 200 legal abortions for women from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Abortion advocates and providers, meanwhile, weren’t convinced. Abort Offshore’s website demands a cash payment in full—$1,500 to $2,200, depending on gestation—just to secure an appointment. And more concerningly, it’s quite difficult to establish a legitimate, medically sound abortion clinic on a boat in such a short amount of time. OB-GYN Meg Autry announced just a week before Abort Offshore entered the scene that she’d been working on plans to launch a similar boat to serve Gulf Coast patients—and she is still trying to raise the $20 million she needs to cover the vessel, security, liability insurance, patient care, etc; before she can even begin.

So how did someone launch a full abortion boat within weeks, and why had virtually no one in the field heard of him before?

The president of Abort Offshore is Michael Kimbro, a 47-year-old former mortgage broker who lives between Texas and New York City. And he is, I learned, exactly the kind of abortion provider one would expect to pop up in a growing void of safe, legal options, where patients are desperate. Kimbro has no experience in any field even adjacent to abortion.

*snip*

[elleng]

1. DEFINITELY fishy.

Shortly after Roe/Dobbs, at least one woman was interviewed (on PBS? NewsHour?) discussing that several such 'boats' were to be established.

[FalloutShelter]

2. Just horrifying that an rich opportunist

Would jump into the viod and pass this enterprise off as a legit option for desperate women.

This is what happens when anything goes free market profiteering gets into health care in a situation where desperate women are simply viewed as a revenue stream. Absolutely revolting!
😱

[2naSalit]

4. +1

Ain't capitalism great?

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R