In the Netherlands, abortion activists seem to have had the wind in their favor recently: the mandatory five-day cooling-off period will most likely be abolished. Whether the plan to make the abortion pill available from the general practitioner will also win a majority is uncertain, but the trend seems to point in the direction of wider availability of abortion care.
Yet we in the Netherlands must be vigilant against the erosion of the right to abortion, as was heard at the protest on Saturday. ‘The news from the US reminds us how vulnerable the right to self-determination is’, says organizer Annemieke van Straalen. ‘I used to be naive myself and didn’t realize how big the anti-abortion lobby is in the Netherlands. But there are also people in our parliament who want to follow the path of America.’
Organizations such as Amnesty International, knowledge center Rutgers, Women Inc. and the Women’s March therefore joined forces to express their solidarity with like-minded people in America and to draw attention to threats to the right to abortion in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the world. Dolle Mina, the action group that fought for the same rights in the eighties, was also present.
criminal law
An important point of criticism of the pro-abortion activists on Dutch policy is that abortion is still mentioned in the Criminal Code. It is therefore only legal under specific conditions and not part of regular medical care. GroenLinks MP Corinne Ellemeet, the driving force behind the recent proposals on the cooling-off period and the abortion pill, announced that she will try to change that. According to Ellemeet, there is a guiding opinion from politicians about abortion and ‘that is not possible’, she says. To prevent abortion law in the Netherlands from being endangered, ‘we must make ourselves heard’.
Experience expert Eva de Goeij, who had an unwanted pregnancy three years ago, spoke to those present about the condemnation she felt when she wanted to end her pregnancy. De Goeij, chairman of the Ava foundation, which supports people around a possible abortion, warned against the ‘strong anti-abortion lobby’ that is being conducted in the Netherlands. That lobby also maintains close ties with allies in the United States, fueling concerns that the fire could spread.
‘The discussion is hardening and the atmosphere is becoming increasingly grim’, notes Van Straalen. ‘Many municipalities talk about buffer zones at abortion clinics, because the anti-abortion activists there go way too far. In the Netherlands there are many signs of things that are apparently harmless, but in reality can do a lot of harm.’ For example, during the corona crisis, there was an initiative to have the abortion pill delivered by post to unwanted pregnant women who were unable to leave their home. The summary proceedings that were supposed to make this possible were rejected. Van Straalen: ‘We have to make ourselves heard if we don’t want our successes to be reversed.’
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