Banned on land, but free at sea?

On the world's final frontier - the high seas - a new brand of pioneer is testing the limits of laws made on land.

By the end of this year, two novel ventures will be blazing a controversial trail first signaled by the casino boats that take gamblers outside US waters, beyond reach of the bans on gaming that most states have enacted.

Seven miles off the coast of Britain, on a World War II-era antiaircraft gun emplacement, a team of young American Internet entrepreneurs is setting up the world's first "data haven" - a virtually rules-free location for people and companies wishing to store and transmit electronic files free of government legislation.

And just across the English Channel, in Amsterdam, a Dutch doctor is preparing to set sail on a ship specially equipped for abortions, which she plans to carry out in international waters off the coasts of countries where such procedures are illegal.

Both Sean Hastings, the American who founded HavenCo, and Rebecca Gomperts, who intends to name her medical ship the Sea Change, say they are using the ocean to offer people choices that they are denied at home.

But governments see things in a different light: Both ventures have been threatened with court action if they go ahead.

On the Mediterranean island of Malta, where abortions are illegal, Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said in a recent radio interview that criminal action would be taken against anyone organizing or helping to arrange the services that Dr. Gomperts will offer.

Shock value

Gomperts acknowledges that her project "is a shocking idea." But she defends it as "an emergency solution to a shocking reality.

"We can circumvent national laws like this, but that is not the main purpose," she insists. "The main purpose is to offer a much-needed service and to draw attention to what is happening." Twenty million of the 53 million abortions performed each year around the world are illegal and often unsafe, Gomperts points out, and 100,000 women die each year during such illegal operations.

Onboard her ship, flying the Dutch flag, Dutch law will apply when she is in international waters, Gomperts says. That law permits abortion on demand, after a five-day waiting period after the first visit to a doctor.

Mr. Gonzi's threat, however, points to potential problems when the Sea Change docks in order to take on patients. Gomperts' legal advisers have warned her to expect challenges, such as attempts to impound her ship, or to take out an injunction against it, on the grounds of intention to commit a crime.

"It might come to court, but we have a very strong case," she argues. "We are not intending to commit any crime because we will be outside territorial waters when we perform the operation, and in international waters, abortion is not a crime."

Gomperts knows, though, that "this will certainly raise questions. It has never been done before and there are some very complex juridical issues."

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