Belgian Green MPs table abortion reform proposal

By Nina Chabot | EURACTIV.com
Sep 28, 2023

A bill to reform Belgium’s abortion laws, particularly by extending the legal period for abortion and decriminalising it, was tabled by two Ecolo-Green (EELV) MPs on Thursday.

Séverine de Laveleye (Ecolo, EELV) and Eva Platteau (Groen, EELV) presented this project on the occasion of the International Day for Free and Safe Abortion on Thursday.

In their tabled bill, the two MPs seek to extend the period in which abortion can be performed from 12 to 18 weeks and to abolish the six-day waiting period before an abortion can be performed.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/belgian-green-mps-table-abortion-reform-proposal/

29.09.2023

News

abortion law reform

Eva Platteau

Fédération Laïque de Centres de Planning Familial

International Safe Abortion Day

Médecins du Monde Belgium

Today in History: Arrest of Dr Willy Peers for performing 200 abortions

Sunday, 15 January 2023

On this day, in 1973, Doctor Willy Peers was arrested and prosecuted for performing over 200 abortions in Namur. The ensuing public outrage marked the beginning of a historic societal shift in favour of abortion in the country.

In 1973, Belgium was one of the last countries in Europe where voluntary interruption of pregnancy was still prohibited by law, due to the influence of the Catholic Church.

Continued: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/352913/today-in-history-arrest-of-dr-willy-peers-for-performing-200-abortions

15.01.2023

Featured

Belgian Society for the Legalisation of Abortion

Belgium – Abortion rights law dragged into federal government negotiations

Friday, 03 July 2020

The decriminalisation of abortion in Belgium and a relaxation of rules to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy have been sucked into the ongoing negotiations for a federal government.

In a statement on Friday, the CD&V, Open Vld and MR, the three parties leading the negotiations to create a new federal government, announced that abortion rights would be part of the ongoing government negotiations.

Continued: https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/politics/119899/abortion-rights-law-dragged-into-federal-government-negotiations/

03.07.2020

decriminalisation of abortion

Belgium could criminalise abortion protest

Belgium could criminalise abortion protest

by Michael Cook
23 Feb 2020

Once again, the Belgian parliament is debating abortion – not whether to decriminalise it, for that happened in 1990, but whether to criminalise protests against it.

A new bill would relax existing restrictions by allowing abortions up to 18 weeks (from 12 weeks), removing all penalties for women who do not comply with the law, and shortening a mandatory cooling-off period from six to two days.

Continued: https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/belgium-could-criminalise-abortion-protest/13337

23.02.2020

Featured

News

abortion law reform

anti-choice protesters

buffer zones

Institut Européen de Bioéthique

offense of obstructing abortion

BELGIUM – Decriminalisation of abortion: the debate is re-opened in the parliament

BELGIUM – Decriminalisation of abortion: the debate is re-opened in the parliament

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Nov 1, 2019

Members of the Justice Committee in the Belgian parliament have re-opened the debate on the decriminalisation of abortion. Five bills have been tabled, all of which go further than the current law, as amended in October 2018. But there are differences between the bills and the parties supporting them. Hence, there may not be a sufficient majority for decriminalisation of abortion.

The law reform of October 2018 legalised abortion under in certain conditions, but did not achieve true decriminalisation because penal sanctions were retained for abortions outside the legal grounds. For example, the upper time limit of 12 weeks remains in place. A reflection period of six days was also kept. Only in cases of medical emergencies was the time limit increased. This was a compromise between the parties, but it was rejected by many as “false decriminalisation”.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/belgium-decriminalisation-of-abortion-debate-re-opened-in-parliament/

01.11.2019

Featured

News

abortion law reform

decriminalisation of abortion

Right to abortion: Minister to take Brussels Declaration to UN

Right to abortion: Minister to take Brussels Declaration to UN

Friday, 15 February 2019

The Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Rudy Demotte, is due from 10 to 14 March to go to New York.

The trip is with a view to taking the Brussels Declaration, which in particular is calling for legalizing abortion (in French-speaking Belgium called IVG), at the 63rd UN Commission on the Status of Women, said his department on Thursday.

Continued: http://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/14096/right-to-abortion-demotte-will-take-brussels-declaration-to-un-at-beginning-of-march

BELGIUM – Hi-jacked: the minimal changes to the Belgian abortion law due to ‘political compromise’

Hi-jacked: the minimal changes to the Belgian abortion law due to ‘political compromise’

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
July 24, 2018
Commentary by Carine Vrancken, LUNA Abortion Centre, Hasselt, Belgium

Since mid-2016, several Belgian opposition political parties have submitted bills to change the abortion law. Some of them have been uncomplicated (take the existing text out of the penal code and put it in a civil law, without changing the content) while others have proposed a substantial change (take abortion out of the penal code, allow abortion on request up to the 20th week of pregnancy and get rid of the required 6-day waiting period between the request for abortion and the procedure). In the spring of 2017 the Flemish liberal party (Open VLD), a member of the majority coalition in the parliament, also submitted a bill (take abortion out of the penal code, reduce the waiting period to 48 hours, and allow abortion on request up to the 18th week of pregnancy). There were three other bills as well, in total six different bills.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/belgium-hi-jacked-the-minimal-changes-to-the-belgian-abortion-law-due-to-political-compromise/

BELGIUM – Bishops criticise decision to scrap abortion from penal code

Bishops criticise decision to scrap abortion from penal code

Wednesday, 04 July 2018

The Belgian bishops’ conference has criticised a decision by the federal government parties to produce a bill to remove abortion from the statute books.

The bill will be presented to parliament on Thursday, after an agreement reached on Tuesday by the four majority parties: N-VA, CD&V, Open VLD and MR.

Abortion is still technically illegal in Belgium, save for certain circumstances laid out in a 1990 law, which famously led to the abdication for one day of then-king Baudouin, whose Catholic faith could not allow him to give the law Royal approval. Instead, he stepped down while the law was passed, in an inventive and unprecedented solution engineered by prime minister Wilfried Martens, resuming the throne the following day (photo).

Continued: http://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/politics/11833/bishops-criticise-decision-to-scrap-abortion-from-penal-code

04.07.2018

Featured

News

abortion in emergency circumstances

Poland – ‘We feel like second category citizens,’ say abortion campaigners

'We feel like second category citizens,' say abortion campaigners

By Damon Embling
02/07/2018

Protesters have been venting their opposition against planned changes to Poland's abortion laws, in Brussels.

They think moves to ban terminations in cases involving irreparably damaged fetuses is wrong. This, as a special Polish commission of legislators examined the proposal.

Continued: http://www.euronews.com/2018/07/02/-we-feel-like-second-category-citizens-say-abortion-campaigners

BELGIUM – Decriminalisation bill debate concludes in the Justice Commission

BELGIUM – Decriminalisation bill debate concludes in the Justice Commission

June 22, 2018
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

The debates on taking abortion out of the Penal Code in Belgium are over, at least in the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Representatives. The hearings almost all went in the same direction: that abortion must be removed from the Penal Code. In early July, the Justice Commission will look at the issue once more and then a vote should be taken.

For Karine Lalieux, the Socialist MP behind the decriminalisation bill, it would be a simple but historic step forward: “This would be a necessary, indispensable and natural historical advance, given that today abortion in our country is still considered an offense against morality and the family. It is totally anachronistic and at the same time there is always a risk, for the doctors as well as for the women, of being prosecuted for abortion.”

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/belgium-decriminalisation-bill-debate-concludes-in-the-justice-commission/

22.06.2018