Guatemalan Government Seizes a Boat Providing Illegal Abortions Offshore

Steve Weatherbe : Feb 27, 2017
LifeSiteNews.com

Guatemala's Constitution protects the life of the unborn from conception, and abortions are illegal. When the life of the mother is in danger, doctors are permitted to intervene under the principle of double effect to save her life.

(Quetzal, Guatemala) [LifeSiteNews] The Guatemalan government has detained a vessel sent by a Dutch abortion group, Women on Waves, only a day after it arrived in the country's largest port. (Photo: Women On Waves/via LifeSiteNews.com)

"We are fine but our project is not fine," Women on Waves spokeswoman Leticia Denedich told LifeSiteNews. "Our boat has been detained." The plan was for the Adelaida to leave port three days from now and return to international waters. There it would provide medical or pharmaceutical abortions on unborn babies of up to 10 weeks gestation.

Guatemalan women were to ferry out to the ship, take the pill or pills, and return to shore in just four hours.

However, Denedich said the Quetzal Port Authority has ordered the Adelaida to stay at her berth and posted a patrol boat a few meters away. "They have not cited any legal authority," she said. "But it is clear now we will have to go to court."

According to news reports, the 10 abortion activists from Europe and Brazil are confined to the vessel... 

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