A Dutch doctor who launched a not for profit organisation which provides terminations to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws has sent pills to women in need by drone.

In 1999 Rebecca Gompert launched Women on Waves - a specially constructed mobile clinic on board a ship which carries out non-surgical abortion services in international waters.

When it visits a country women make appointments and are taken on board the ship. The ship then sails out to international waters, where Dutch laws are in effect on board the ship, to perform the medical abortions.

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In 1999 Rebecca Gompert (pictured in Dublin), a doctor, launched Women on Waves - a specially constructed mobile clinic on board a ship which carries out non-surgical abortion services in international waters

Women on Waves (WoW) also offers services including contraception and reproductive counselling and the ship has been all over the world - from Ireland to Poland, Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

Now, Doctor Gompert has revealed that following a huge surge in demand she has turned to the internet and advances in technology to help women access abortion.

In response to a growing number of help emails from women around the world - and after she realised she could not take the ship everywhere - she founded Women on Web, an online medical abortion service in 2005.

The service supports women living in countries where safe abortion is not available, to obtain information and access abortion pills.

Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a medication typically used with misoprostol to bring about an abortion. This combination is more than 95 per cent effective during the first 50 days of pregnancy.

She said she has sent drones carrying abortion pills from Germany into catholic Poland and other countries where abortion is severely restricted

Every year Women on Web helpdesk members answer more than 100,000 emails from women all over the world and they have even sent abortion pills across borders by drone

She said she has sent drones carrying abortion pills from Germany into catholic Poland and other countries where abortion is severely restricted.

In Poland women can only undergo a termination if the woman's life or health is endangered by the continuation of pregnancy, if the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act, or if the foetus is seriously malformed

Dr Gompert told NBC News: 'We started with the abortion ship but as a result we got a lot of emails from women all over the world asking for help,' she explained. 'It became pretty quickly obvious that we had to do something else.'

'It is very interesting to be able to use the regulations and the legislation that is there — but to circumvent it and to do something legally which is not supposed to be done.

'Regulations have never been made for such actions so we're using gaps in the rules. It's nice to be able ... to help women by doing that.'

But she added it has not all been plain sailing - she said that the Dutch Ministry of Health has tried to investigate and block the Women on Waves ship, while German police officers have intercepted the controllers for the drones into Poland.

Abortion in the Republic of Ireland is illegal unless it occurs as the result of a medical intervention performed to save the life of the mother, while in Northern Ireland performing an abortion is an offence except in specific cases.

There access to abortion is only permitted if a woman's life is at risk or there is a permanent or serious risk to her mental or physical health - but fatal foetal abnormalities and even rape and incest are not circumstances in which abortions can be performed legally.