On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will debate the proposal for the first time. At the last minute, D66 and the VVD also decided to endorse the private member’s bill. The four parties have 75 seats in the House of Representatives, exactly half. It is expected that MPs from Volt, SP and possibly the PVV will also be ahead.
An uncertain factor is that medical-ethical issues are a ‘free issue’ for most political groups: MPs can vote as they see fit. Later on, this also applies in the Senate, where the four parties only have 33 seats, while 36 are needed for a majority.
It is the second amendment to abortion legislation in a short time. On Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on the proposal to abolish the mandatory five-day cooling-off period between an abortion request and implementation. This is a proposal from D66, which GroenLinks, VVD and PvdA joined. A large parliamentary majority is in favour.
The proposals are extremely sensitive in the coalition, because the governing parties CDA and CU are not interested in them. Unlike in previous years, it has now been agreed in the coalition agreement that abortion is a ‘free issue’, because it concerns private member’s bill proposals.
This offers the possibility on this point to make use of the progressive majority in the House of Representatives, which has been there for years when it comes to abortion. A motion calling on the government to abolish the mandatory reflection period was already passed last year with only CDA, CU, SGP and Denk against.
The proposal to also be able to terminate abortion in the early stages of pregnancy with pills prescribed by the general practitioner has been pending for a few years. It was submitted in 2019 by Lilianne Ploumen (PvdA) and Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks). That was a response to a proposal from VVD member Edith Schippers. In her last days as Minister of Health, she submitted a similar bill at the end of 2016. However, that was withdrawn by her successor, Hugo de Jonge (CDA).