Fransje Smit (83) has a trick to guide pregnant women past anti-abortion demonstrators. She walks a little sideways and opens her long winter coat wide. “This way a woman can walk covered behind my coat so as not to be bothered.” Smit stands in front of the entrance to the Bloemenhove abortion clinic, on the border of Haarlem and Heemstede.
Here Smit regularly supports pregnant women who find it difficult to conceive. These could, for example, be women who no one is allowed to know. Due to the taboo that still surrounds abortion, they do not dare to ask for support from those around them.
The growing anti-abortion lobby in the Netherlands is also a reason that the buddies are there. It appears that this lobby receives millions of euros every year from Europe, Russia and the United States a report of it European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF).
the only foundation in the Netherlands that provides abortion buddies, says that more and more women are using the buddies. The foundation is gaining more fame through word of mouth and social media. Since its founding in 2021, the foundation has been training to assist women during their visits to the abortion clinic. In total, about a hundred volunteers are active in thirteen cities. Every week, two to five pregnant women are guided by a buddy.
This also includes women who undergo an abortion in the Netherlands. This mainly concerns Poland and Hungary, where the conditions for abortion used to be or the treatment was virtually impossible in practice.
on the Samen naar de Kliniek website women do not have to explain their situation. It is also possible to use a pseudonym. “We receive the most distressing cases. That is why we want to make it as easy as possible for them to ask for help,” says Djoeke Gerding, chairman of Samen naar de Kliniek.
After a woman has registered via the website, the buddies are told via a chat group on Signal – a secure chat app – that there has been a request and the woman and supervisor are linked together.
The buddies and pregnant women have to go to a public place and then go to the clinic. “We do not verify this. So there is a chance that an anti-abortion activist will suddenly be in front of the buddies. Fortunately, that has not happened yet,” says Gerding. “Sometimes I am at a FlixBus stop at half past four in the morning to pick someone up. We drive straight away,” says buddy Jason de Ridder (35). De Ridder is standing with Smit at the entrance to the abortion clinic in Haarlem.
In the Netherlands, the number of abortions has increased significantly since 2021, by about 27 percent. In 2024, doctors performed about 39,000 abortions. Of these, 3,132 abortions were among women from other countries, it shows research of the Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate (2025).
The Bloemenhove Clinic in Heemstede.
Photo Olivier Middendorp
Intimidation
According to the EPF, that the anti-abortion lobby investigatedit is mainly used by conservative Christians and right-wing populist groups. The buddies also see this, from the type of demonstrators standing in front of the clinic.
In an attempt to combat the intimidation of visitors to abortion clinics, municipalities wanted to designate so-called buffer zones at abortion clinics to keep activists at a distance. That idea is not new: as early as 2019, then Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge (CDA) expressed his support for the plan. “That misconduct must end,” De Jonge said at the time A.D. Last week it was announced that those buffer zones will not be created. From reporting from RTL News it turned out that outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Mona Keijzer (BBB) canceled the adjustment to the right to demonstrate.
Each municipality has its own application of that right to demonstrate. Protesters are allowed to stand on the street in front of the abortion clinic on the border of Haarlem and Heemstede three times a month. Abortion buddy Smit thinks this is an excellent measure that ensures that clinic visitors are less harassed. “Protesters are in a place where you can avoid them.” Smit always walks backwards.
At the indicated demonstration site in Haarlem there are regularly nuns or anti-abortion demonstrators who have apparently flown in from Germany or America. “They used to stand behind the building and pray very loudly through a microphone,” says Smit. “All hell broke loose in the street between the demonstrators and local residents,” says Smit. Other clinics have indicated to Samen naar de Kliniek that they belong to the same groups.
Since this month, mayors have been allowed to hold demonstrations in front of abortion clinics and by the mayor, provided that the demonstrators are “within sight and hearing distance”. That’s in there a statement of the Council of State. Among other things, there should be a “certain degree of order and tranquility” around abortion clinics, such as in a hospital.
Anti-abortion protesters should not harass people who are already in a vulnerable position with their beliefs
Smit points to the other side of the road. There, opposite the abortion clinic, the municipality has designated the place for anti-abortion demonstrators. “The other day I saw nuns and a brother in a habit. All with a large crucifix around their necks. They were holding up scary pictures with a lot of blood while they were praying out loud.”
believes that the demonstrators should not be standing in front of the clinic at all. “They must not harass people who are already in a vulnerable position with their beliefs. They must demonstrate to policymakers, where they can express their wishes.”
The municipalities of Haarlem and Heemstede have decided that anti-abortion demonstrators may no longer approach a visitor to a clinic in a group. But “the intimidators” have come up with a new tactic, says Smit. “They are going after them one by one, because that is allowed.” It also happens that members of a church of which a pregnant woman is also a member stand in front of the clinic. The buddies usually go to the clinic alone in advance to check whether any of the women they know are there. Then they can protect them later if necessary.
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Teenage mother
There are several women in the abortion clinic: a teenager with a nose piercing, an adult woman with a hijab. A young woman snuggles close to her mother. “Want to […] Come along?” a nurse asks those waiting.
The receptionist at the abortion clinic cheerfully waves goodbye to the two buddies. The clinic is with their arrival, say De Ridder and Smit. In the past three years, Smit has mentored eight women. She believes that someone only has to carry a pregnancy to term if the child is sincerely wanted. “Last month I brought a young Hungarian woman to the clinic,” says Smit. In the waiting room she helped the woman fill out an application form. “I saw on her phone that she already had a two-year-old son, because she had a child before she was eighteen.”
Pregnant women do not have to tell Together to the Clinic and the buddies what situation they are in. Some women have become unwanted pregnant in a marriage or relationship. Others are victims of rape. “I always find the contact in the beginning exciting,” says De Ridder. He now has .
Sometimes a woman explicitly indicates that she does not want a male buddy. De Ridder has also experienced that. He became a buddy because he sees abortion as a right to self-determination. “I think more men should speak out in favor of abortion and equal rights for women.” He is one of the men who is a buddy at Samen naar de Kliniek. The remaining 87 are women.
Cheer
To gain more awareness, the buddies regularly place posters in libraries or visit community centers, asylum seeker centers and refugee workers. And they are trying to become more visible to healthcare networks. “It would be nice if the GP would mention us if there is a need for someone to come along,” says Gerding.
Gerding is seeing more and more buddy requests from countries such as Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Romania and Hungary. The Netherlands, together with the United Kingdom, is the only country in Europe where up to .
Contact with the women is sometimes difficult if they do not speak Dutch or English. “Google Translate does not translate well enough,” says Smit.
The buddies often spend about two hours with the pregnant woman. “A young woman can be fixated on her phone in the backseat of the car. Or she can be completely absorbed in herself,” says De Ridder.
During the treatment, the buddies wait in the waiting room or go home for a while. Some women are relieved after the treatment. “It didn’t matter if the last one was cheering,” says De Smit. But someone else is dazed by the anesthesia.
“People around me sometimes react in surprise to the fact that I am a buddy,” says Smit. She used to be a hospice volunteer. “Then I was at the end of someone’s life. Now I am at the beginning.”
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