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Guatemala Seizes Dutch Ship Offering Free Abortions Off Its Coast

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

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Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
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The Guatemalan army seized a ship offering free abortions off its coast Wednesday, on orders from the country’s president.

The Dutch ship travels the world offering free abortions in places where they are illegal, and had decided Guatemala would be its next destination. But soon after pulling into port Wednesday morning, the army detained the ship and barred women from boarding to receive abortion pills. Outcry inside the Catholic country, which bans abortion except to save the life of the mother, was “ferocious, and swift,” reports The Washington Post. (RELATED: Abortionists Capitalize On Devastation Wrought By Zika Virus)

“It’s a sin,” pro-life activist Marleni Arias told reporters. “Why don’t you go to Holland and kill children over there? Go to Holland. Why come to Guatemala? We are already cursed enough in Guatemala, we don’t need more.”

The pro-abortion activists on the ship run by a non-profit called “Women on Waves,” however, say their practice of docking offshore of countries against killing unborn babies and offering women abortion pills is legal, and that they have some kind of permit. “We respect religious beliefs but this is a fundamental right in a democracy,” a spokeswoman for the group told reporters.

The group offers women who board the boat and are up to 10 weeks pregnant a free abortion pill.

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