PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend couple detained at a marina in Guatemala while volunteering on an “abortion ship” operated by a Dutch nonprofit are now home safe.
Daniel Evans, 44, and his wife, Marilee Nyland Evans, 32, volunteered last month with two other Americans aboard a boat operated by Women on Waves, which provides reproductive health services to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws.
“I had added them to a bucket list,” Nyland Evans said. “I knew I wanted to work for them, but didn’t know that time would be now.”
According to Nyland, a friend had recommended Evans for the captain’s position on the boat due to his experience as captain of the Schooner Adventuress. Nyland Evans, who was a cook aboard the Adventuress, was also accepted due to her experience as an activist with the Sea Shepherd marine conservation organization.
Women on Waves also provides abortion services to women in the early stages of pregnancy — when it can be terminated using a pill — by taking women into international waters where trained medical professionals can provide abortion services.
The group also offers health exams and birth control options.
However, they were not able to provide those service in Guatemala because the crew was detained almost upon arrival.
According to Evans, they were able to get all of their passports stamped and get all of their paperwork filed with the Guatemalan government, but the next day, Feb. 22, they found the gate leading off their dock padlocked and guarded.
“We were on our way up to a press conference,” Evans said. “All we’d done is hang up some banners, but freedom of speech is protected in Guatemala.”
Despite never being able to leave the harbor, the two said they felt like the trip yielded results.
“Now there’s a national dialogue about something no one was talking about,” said Nyland Evans. “Someone told us that while we were there most of the news stories were about us.”
That was despite an almost immediate shutdown of press access to the boat by the Guatemalan government. However, Nyland Evans said a few journalists made their way through, some even motoring out on small boats to the Women on Waves ship.
Evans said this kind of publicity is basically how Women on Waves operates.
“They use the ship to create this tangible thing to focus on the point, which is women’s reproductive health,” Evans said. “They have a huge shore-side effort with local activists. The boat is just the focal point.”
According Reuters, this was the first campaign to be carried out by Women on Waves since a similar ship run by the nonprofit was banned from entering a harbor in Morocco in 2012.
According to Nyland Evans, Women on Waves was actually sent to Guatemala at the request of Quetzali Cerezo, the director of Women in Equity in Guatemala.
Abortions are illegal in Guatemala unless the life of the mother is at risk and even that has to be agreed upon by two doctors.
Despite the law, nearly 65,000 illegal abortions are performed annually in Guatemala with 21,600 of those women ending up in the hospital due to complications, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute in New York.
According to Nyland Evans, Cerezo’s goal is to get a law passed that would allow abortion in the case of rape or incest, which is currently not the case in Guatemala.
“I can’t believe that doesn’t exist, but that’s what we’re working with,” Nyland Evans said.
After the group’s detainment, a lawyer with Women on Waves immediately filed a case against their detention, as did another anonymous lawyer. However, there very quickly were five court cases brought against the organization, which concerned the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala.
“The U.S. Embassy told us they were very concerned for our lives and that they couldn’t protect us if we ended up in jail,” Evans said.
Despite being detained, the two said they felt safe because it appeared everything was being dealt with legally.
That changed when one of their court cases was somehow “lost” and the president had ordered a fast track on the five cases against them.
“That was kind of the point that we realized this was not about legal proceedings and corruption was ultimately going to win out,” Evans said. “That was when we decided to leave.”
The U.S. Embassy and the group’s lawyers agreed, but leaving wasn’t easy either.
“We felt they were dragging their feet trying to get a decision from the court before we left,” Evans said.
With some help from their lawyers, the ship left the harbor Feb. 26 at 9 p.m. with a military escort.
According to Nyland Evans, they found out later the courts had ruled against them at 8:30 p.m., which would’ve allowed the Guatemalan soldiers guarding them to take them into custody.
“We didn’t know it at the time but there was 30 minutes there where we could’ve been in real trouble,” Nyland Evans said.
They sailed to Mexico, caught a flight back to the U.S. and the two arrived back in Port Townsend early Friday morning.
Nyland Evans said they thought the trip would be simple, that they would take a few women out on the boat, help them and be back at the dock by dark and able to wander the city and speak to some of the women working to change the laws in Guatemala.
“It was so far from what we expected,” Nyland Evans said.
“We had no idea how organized the resistance would be,” Evans said. “As a government engine they were very much against us, but what we found was that individually and within the community, we had a lot of support.”
The two said the few people they were able to speak with, mostly fishermen who frequented the dock, showed them a lot of support.
“It’s such a big problem that [illegal abortions] have become common,” Nyland Evans said. “Almost everyone knows someone who has had an abortion.”
“They told me ‘the government is one thing, but the people are another,’ ” Evans said.
Now safe at home caring for their young daughter and Nyland Evans’ mother, who lives with them, the couple feels like the trip was ultimately a success.
“The women of Guatemala go up against so much to fight this,” Evans said. “It could ruin their lives.”
“Some people may not like that we’re down there protesting another country’s laws, but we’re ultimately the best people to do it because we have a country and a home to run to,” Nyland Evans said.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
