The world's first floating abortion clinic has yet to set sail but it is already making waves. The brainchild of a Dutch doctor, Rebecca Gomperts, the ship will travel around the globe performing abortions off the coast of countries where the practice is outlawed.

The idea has not gone down well in Malta - one of the countries likely to receive a visit. The Maltese authorities earlier this week described the concept as "horrendous", while the island's Roman Catholic bishops have accused Dr Gomperts of seeking to carry out "heinous murders".

But Dr Gomperts, who spoke to the Guardian yesterday from her home in Amsterdam, was undaunted. "No major changes have ever taken place without a risk," she said. "Women should be empowered. We're talking about a human right here - the right to plan your offspring when and where you want.

"At the moment women are dying for nothing."

The idea for a "seagoing women's health clinic" came to Dr Gomperts when she was working as a doctor on the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace boat sunk by the French secret service during an anti-nuclear protest in 1985.

The floating clinic, to be called the Sea Change, will target countries where abortion is illegal - all of South America, most of Africa, a large number of Asian countries and Poland, Malta and Ireland. Her organisation, the Women on Waves Foundation, has planned the initiative with military precision and seems to have considered every last detail.

The only obstacle now is money - £100,000 still needs to be collected to lease a ship to get started. The Sea Change will not be huge - 50 metres long - but it will be well equipped and very much like the hospital ships used during the second world war.

The "treatment room" will be housed in a shipping container which can be hoisted on and off shore and has already been designed. The vessel will drop its anchor 12 miles off the coast and will therefore, Dr Gomperts argued, be in international waters and subject to Dutch law.

Women will be ferried aboard in small boats in the morning and the clinic will include 10 beds and a waiting room. At other times of the day it will dispense contraception, advice and counselling.

Its crew, which is likely to include two doctors and a nurse, will be on hand to train local midwives in safe abortion techniques and open days will be held for local politicians and activists.

It is estimated that the ship will be able to perform 5,000 abortions a year and, since two thirds of the world's population live within 100 miles of a major port, its reach will be wide. Treatment will be free but women who are felt to be able to afford it will be asked to make a donation.

Aware that the ship is likely to be an easy target for anti-abortion campaigners, Dr Gomperts is adamant that security will be tight.

"In response to the potential for violent acts, we realise that we will have to be very vigilant and have therefore included security as a significant item in the ship's budget. This will include video and webcam surveillance systems, round the clock manned security watches on board and further measures which we cannot reveal."

The ship is unlikely to be sunk, she adds, and "the risk of harming women by attacking the ship would create very bad publicity for anti-choice terrorists".

The ship will stay in one place for up to six months and will arrive unannounced so as not to give anti-abortion activists a chance to organise themselves. Dr Gomperts vowed that it will sail the world until abortion is legalised everywhere.

"The Sea Change will continue to sail as long as there is a medical and political need or demand for it which means as long as there are still countries where women have no reproductive rights."

She points to the fact that around 100,000 women die as a result of botched backstreet abortions every year.

Women on Waves ultimately wants to buy and equip a ship but in the meantime a two-month pilot project is likely to get under way this year.