On Wednesday, the Senate approved the proposal to remove the mandatory statutory cooling-off period for abortion. In a roll-call vote, a large majority of 59 MPs were in favor and 16 senators were against the amendment to the law, which Jan Paternotte (D66), Attje Kuiken (PvdA), Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks) and Jeroen van Wijngaarden (VVD) submitted in 2021. It is the first time in nearly forty years that the Abortion Act, which came into effect in 1984, has been amended.
The new law states that a woman who presents to an abortion clinic with a request for termination of pregnancy is no longer obliged to think for five days whether she really wants this. The petitioners found the previous law patronizing for women and unnecessary because most women who come to a clinic have already thought thoroughly about their abortion wish.
Also read this article about the advocates of abortion and the opposing camp
The CDA MPs were strikingly divided in the vote: four CDA members voted in favor of the law, four were against. The entire PVV faction voted against the bill, where that party was still divided in the House of Representatives. Voting on medical-ethical topics is a free issue for many political groups, which means that MPs can vote deviating from the party line.
free issue
In February, a large majority in the House of Representatives already approved the bill. During a roll-call vote, 101 MPs were in favor of the private member’s bill and 38 against. Almost all MPs from the VVD, D66, GroenLinks, PvdA, SP, Party for the Animals, Denk, Volt, the Van Haga Group and Bij1 voted in favour. The parties of CDA, ChristenUnie, SGP and Forum for Democracy voted unanimously against, as did Caroline van der Plas of the BoerBurgerBeweging and independent MP Pieter Omtzigt. With the voting ratio in the House of Representatives, the law already seemed to have a good chance in the Senate.
In March, a large majority in the House of Representatives – 106 against 34 – voted in favor of another amendment to the law, which should make it possible to also provide the abortion pill via the general practitioner. This has yet to be voted on in the Senate.