MPs reject bid to stop hospital late-abortion pilot

The Tweede Kamer on Tuesday rejected a proposal by the ChristenUnie to stop a hospital pilot offering late abortions for non-medical reasons. A total of 96 MPs voted against.

The pilot concerns women between 22 and 24 weeks pregnant. Abortion is legal in the Netherlands up to 24 weeks, but from 22 weeks women can no longer go to an abortion clinic. Only hospitals can help, and a woman who wants a late abortion because the pregnancy is unwanted often has to go abroad.

The same day, a motion of censure by the SGP against Hermans (VVD) over her abortion policy failed, with 106 votes against and 40 for. The SGP sees the pilot as an undesirable widening of abortion practice. Hermans says hospitals have this freedom within current law. “I don’t just accept that right, I stand squarely behind it,” she said of women’s right to abortion in an emergency.

The censure motion drew support from the right: five of the nine JA21 MPs (Annabel Nanninga, Ingrid Coenradie, Simon Ceulemans, Diederik Boomsma and Daniël van den Berg), the three-member BBB group, the ChristenUnie, Forum for Democracy and most PVV MPs. JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans voted against. He said his MPs may decide medical-ethical votes themselves.

The CDA voted unanimously against stopping the pilot but says it has “great difficulty” with it. CDA MP André Poortman called the ChristenUnie proposal “not feasible under current law”, though his party sympathises with its signal. “Medical-ethical considerations are layered and never black and white,” he said.

The gynaecologists’ association NVOG says the pilot serves a “relatively small group of women who are often in a very vulnerable situation”. It should lead to “safe and carefully organised care” for them.