Feminist to Know: Rebecca Gomperts

Rebecca Gomperts (b. 1966) is a doctor and artist whose career is centered around providing abortion services and reproductive healthcare education to those with limited or no access. Gomperts studied both medicine and conceptual art, combining her backgrounds in art and medicine in 1999 to found Women on Waves. Technically an art piece (this allows the medical equipment to go unseized), Women on Waves is a boat that provides non-surgical abortion services in international waters to people from countries where abortion is restricted.

After Women on Waves, Gomperts then founded Women on Webs, a project that provides online consultations with doctors for people who would otherwise lack access to abortion. Women on Webs then sends abortion pills via the mail. Both Women on Waves and Women on Webs are attempts to give medically-backed, safe abortions to those who would otherwise turn to unsafe methods.

Vessel, a documentary about Gomperts and Women on Waves, is available to watch on Amazon Prime. As she says in Vessel, “you always have to have an offensive strategy in order to create change.”