Gomperts, Rebecca

Rebecca Gomperts is an abortion rights activist who has earned international attention with her projects Women on Waves and Women on Web. Her motivations, goals, strategies, and successes are outlined in this article.

Gomperts was born Suriname in 1966 and was raised in Vlissengen, the Netherlands, after her family moved there when she was 3 years old. She studied medicine and visual arts in Amsterdam and interned in surgery and radiology. While serving as the ship doctor aboard the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior II, Gomperts met many women in South America who suffered tremendously because of the lack of access to reproductive health services and safe, legal abortion. Their stories, along with those of health professionals, were her inspiration for founding Women on Waves (WoW) ...