Women in Belgium travel to the Netherlands for later term abortions

euronews (in English)

In Belgium abortion is legal 12 weeks after conception, with many women travelling across the border to the Netherlands in order to terminate pregnancies later.

Transcript

00:00The 12-week legal limit for abortion in Belgium leads more than 300 women a year to travel

00:07to the Netherlands to terminate their pregnancies, according to pro-choice associations.

00:13The legislation, unchanged since 1990, also obliges a six-day reflection period, which

00:19for the centres responsible for carrying out abortions is incompatible with the reality

00:25of many women.

00:27We stopped at 12 weeks of pregnancy, but we have people who unfortunately exceed this

00:34delay for a lot of reasons, and not because they want to delay asking for an abortion,

00:39as we sometimes hear.

00:41And then there is this completely arbitrary rule, which is the delay of reflection.

00:46The woman who makes her request today must wait six days before she can have an abortion,

00:52whereas maybe she had already thought about it for 15 days before contacting us, or others

00:56will have done their pregnancy test this morning and then contact us.

01:00So what we are asking for is this flexibility to be able to adapt to each situation and

01:03to be able to respond positively to each situation.

01:06Having to travel to another country to have an abortion is a reality for many within the

01:11European Union, due to the legislation of different member states.

01:16Abortion time limits vary from 10 weeks in Portugal to 24 weeks in the Netherlands.

01:21More than half have set this limit at 12 weeks.

01:24In Malta and Poland, it is only legal if the mother's life is in danger.

01:52The European Parliament voted to include access to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

02:14However, it was not binding, as health issues are considered part of each country's legislative

02:20remiss.

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