Vessel

Movie Title-- Vessel

Release Year-- 2014

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 30 Minutes

Director-- Diana Whitten

Cast-- Dr. Rebecca Gomperts,

This documentary follows a pro-choice Dutch organization founded by Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, “Women on Waves” and it's sister organization.

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts goes to work on the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior II, after she finishes her abortion training. While she is in South America she heard many heart wrenching stories from women who were raped, were unable to provide for a child or even were at physical risk by being pregnant with no safe way to terminate their pregnancy. These stories pushed Dr. Gomperts to do something to provide safe alternatives for women in countries were there was no legal option for them. This led to the creation of “Women on Waves”.

In the Netherlands it is legal to have an abortion as long as it is in a licensed clinic, therefore they build a mobile clinic out of a shipping container in order to be able to obtain a medical license. It started out as a privately funded project but once the word got out, Irish women's group in Ireland invited “Women on Waves” to have their maiden voyage there and donated the money to get the mobile clinic up and running.

Once everything was completed and arranged, they set off for Ireland. The taking off of this ship became big news, so as soon as the ship set off, they began getting emails inquiring about when they would arrive and how people could set up appointments. The only problem is, when the ship leaves the Netherlands they do not have their medical license and the press gets a hold of this information, causing more problems than they were already facing in Ireland and they are forced to leave before they can help anyone. Once they arrive back in the Netherlands, they get word that they do not actually need a license to do early term abortions.

Every where they go they run into very strong and harsh opposition and they come up with inventive ways to get word out and keep women's identities private. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts goes on television in Portugal and tells women how they can abort an unwanted pregnancy with medication and after that they started to get tons of emails, first from Portugal and then from other places around the world, asking how they can get the medicine or how to take it; “Women on Web” was then born.

So, there is SO much more to this documentary than posted above but I didn't want to give all of it away because honestly, no matter how you feel about this subject, it is a good watch. I will go ahead and warn you, I watched it on Netfilx with the subtitles on so that I wouldn't miss anything and there are times when they are in different countries, speaking the native language and it isn't translated. That being said, knowing the subject matter and seeing the situation the women are put in, you don't really need to know what they are saying to understand what is going on.

There are tons of statistics throughout this film. I neglected to post them however because the statistics are about 3 years old now and I am not sure how much they have changed.

I just want to say, no matter your opinion, you have to give Dr. Rebecca Gomperts her due. She is a woman, striving to help women that have no means of helping themselves. She and her crew are making a difference, even if you don't agree with what she is doing.

As of the time this film was released the “Women on Waves” campaign helped to change the laws in two countries dealing with legal abortion. They have set up safe abortion hotlines in Ecuador, Chili, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand, Poland and Morocco. They have set up “Women on Web” that provides questions and answers for women that are seeking help and importantly, they help to provide contraceptives. I don't care how you feel about the subject, for a woman and her supporters to achieve this kind of success is amazing. Love it or hate it, she is getting results.

Watch this film. If you are a pro-lifer, watch this film but go into with an open mind (if at all possible). A pro-lifer should watch this film just to see how hard this woman works for what she believes in. If you are pro-choice, watch this film and if you are interested, see what you can do to help out this organization.

I hope that I did an alright job not putting my own personal opinions in this week's documentary. This subject is not one I like to get into debates with people over, so I try to keep my opinions to myself. Also, I can not review a film like this one and not list the information for the organization, so if you or someone you know needs help or someone to talk to, the websites you can go to learn more will be listed below. If you are just interested in helping out or joining their cause, click the links. I went to the websites while doing research for the review and they do have a lot of information for people to look into. If you need to speak to someone, the hotline information is listed on the “Women on Waves” website.

Thanks for stopping by, give this one a watch with an open mind and Don't Forget the Popcorn!!

(The websites you can go to for information are as follows:)

www.womenonwaves.org

www.womenonweb.org

www.who.int
(The World Health Organization)