Regarding the couple from Port Townsend who found themselves in potential danger in Guatemala:

It seems very odd to me that someone would go to a predominantly Catholic country where abortion is illegal for the express purpose of participating in abortion procedures and be surprised that you might get in trouble. It takes a lot of gall for people to think their beliefs trump the laws and cultures of other countries and assist in activities that are illegal.

There are many areas of the world where unborn children are valued, given civil rights and protected by their governments. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in our country, but then that’s a whole other discussion.

All women should not be able to have free access to abortion, except if it’s necessary to save their lives. Abortion destroys unborn children’s lives and violates their civil rights. There can be medical complications, emotional distress and regret for the mother following an abortion.

Are you going to be there to manage the physical and psychological aftercare or will you sail away under your banner of “job well done” to the next port where you take and damage more lives?

Women on Waves is hardly a liberator of women, and there is nothing noble about what it attempts to do. If there was, the organization should have stood its ground and been willing to face the Guatemalan government instead of slinking out of the country.

TERI SPENCER

Port Townsend