Dublin, Ireland -- A boat carrying a floating abortion facility docked
Thursday night in Dublin, capital of a predominantly Catholic country
where the right to life is protected.

The Aurora sailed up Dublin's River Liffey shortly before nightfall, a
half-day earlier than expected. The maneuver ensured that the boat avoided
pro-life groups that had vowed to respond with a pro-life boat.

The pro-abortion group's dockside spokeswoman, Joke van Kampen, said the
boat was likely to stay in Dublin for the next week, ferrying women into
international waters as needed, then would sail for Ireland's southwest
second city of Cork. Although their vessel includes a makeshift operating
room, the activists say they plan to offer give out the dangerous RU-486
abortion pill to women whose unborn children are less than 10 weeks old.

Dutch authorities say the activists may face criminal prosecution upon
their return, and maximum 4 1/2-year jail terms, for operating without a
medical license.

Father Pat O'Donoghue, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic archdiocese,
said the voyage seemed to be motivated by something "other than an attempt
to help people." He thought Ireland would hold true to its traditional
"veneration for life."

The boat has reopened the often-dormant debate on legalizing abortion in
Ireland, an issue left in legal limbo by all major political parties since
a landmark 1992 Irish Supreme Court judgment.

The court ruled that a 14-year-old girl, who had been barred by a lower
court from traveling to Britain for an abortion, should be allowed to go
on the grounds she might otherwise commit suicide. The girl, who had been
raped by a neighbor, ended up suffering a miscarriage.

That judgment also called for lawmakers to make abortion available within
Ireland for cases in which the mother's life was at risk, including
suicide. It spurred a referendum later that year asking voters to approve
legal abortions when the mother's life was at risk - except for threatened
suicide. That option was rejected.