(Newswire.net — June 29, 2015) — A Netherlands-based non-profit organization ‘Women on Waves,’ which provides medical abortion pills around the world, found a daring way to help Polish women by smuggling pregnancy-terminated pills across the Germany-Poland border, Deutsche Welle reported. The activists straped packages of pills to a drone and flew it from Frankfurt an der Odur, across the River Oder, to to the Polish border town Slubice.
German border police reacted and arrested the pilot, however not before he managed to successfully land the drone, carrying two packages of mifepristone and misoprostol. The moment the packages arrived, two women who apparently waited the drone arrival in coordinated action, immediately swallowed the pills.
The action was aimed at highlighting the strict Polish abortion laws, which result in about 50,000 underground terminations each year.
One of the Polish woman who participated said she is “outraged” that she is not able legally to terminate pregnancy in Poland.
“It’s adding to a lot of stress,” Marta, a 30-year-old from Warsaw told the Deutsche Welle. “I don’t like how me wanting the right to have a safe and legal abortion makes me fall into the picture of someone who’s not responsible and doesn’t have control. That’s the discourse that’s popular in Poland and that’s so hurtful,” she said.
The drone was controlled by personal controls and the flight was monitored by an iPad, which was confiscated by the police.
German authorities have also pressed criminal charges, although it is “totally unclear on what grounds,” the organization said, explaining that there is no border between Germany and Poland since the two countries are members of European Union, and the medicine was a prescription by a doctor.
It is however illegal for women to take the pregnancy-terminating pills in Poland.
Though pregnancy-termination pills are illegal in Poland, women can’t be imprisoned for doing so. However, a physician who performs and illegal abortion can be imprisoned for up to two years.
Women on Waves, who’s earlier action involved sending pregnancy-terminating pills by remote controlled boats, says a similar mission could be deployed to Ireland, where women can only get abortions if their lives are seriously at risk.