Netherlands – Minister blocks plan for protest buffer zones around abortion clinics

Friday, 19 December 2025

Plans to create legally mandated buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect visitors from protesters have been halted after last-minute opposition from BBB Vice Prime Minister Mona Keijzer, sources told RTL. The move affects proposals by ministers for Interior and Kingdom Relations, Rijkaart (BBB), and Justice and Security, Van Oosten (VVD).

The proposal, submitted last Friday to the ministerial council, aimed to establish zones around clinics where demonstrations would be restricted. “Women must be guaranteed a quiet passage to an abortion clinic,” the ministers wrote in an unpublished letter seen by RTL. Currently, such protections depend on decisions by individual mayors.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/19/minister-blocks-plan-protest-buffer-zones-around-abortion-clinics

19.12.2025

News

anti-choice harassment

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NETHERLANDS – Mayors can’t ban protests at abortion clinics, but can set limits: Council of State

Wednesday, 3 December 2025

Mayors can’t ban people from demonstrating at abortion clinics, but they can impose restrictions to prevent disorder, the Council of State ruled in four cases on Wednesday. For example, mayors can prohibit protests directly in front of the clinic’s entrance, as long as the location where demonstrators are permitted is within sight and hearing distance from the clinic, the Council of State said.

Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State issued rulings on four demonstrations at abortion clinics - one in Groningen, one in Amsterdam, and two in Heemstede. In all four cases, the mayor banned protesters from demonstrating directly in front of the clinic’s entrance to prevent disorder. The protesters disagreed with this.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/03/mayors-cant-ban-protests-abortion-clinics-can-set-limits-council-state

03.12.2025

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anti-choice protesters

Dutch abortions hold steady at 39,000, teen procedures decrease

Thursday, 23 October 2025

The Netherlands recorded roughly 39,000 abortions in 2024, virtually unchanged from 2023, while procedures among teenagers dropped to 2,800, down 76 from the previous year, according to the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate. Abortions for girls under 15 fell from 107 in 2023 to 65 in 2024.

Most abortions were performed on women aged 25 to 34, with over half occurring between five and six weeks of pregnancy. Since 2023, Dutch law no longer requires a mandatory five-day reflection period.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/10/23/dutch-abortions-hold-steady-39000-teen-procedures-decrease

23.10.2025

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Netherlands – Utrecht Mayor presses for law to block anti-abortion protests at clinic doors

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma is calling on the Dutch government to introduce national legislation banning anti-abortion protests directly in front of clinics, after the highest administrative court allowed activists to demonstrate at the doors of a Utrecht clinic.

According to NOS, the ruling is related to the Christian group Jezus Leeft, which the court allowed to protest directly outside the clinic with slogans such as “abortion is murder.” Utrecht had attempted to enforce a buffer zone but was overruled.

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/09/16/utrecht-mayor-presses-law-block-anti-abortion-protests-clinic-doors

Nearly 400 Dutch doctors register to prescribe abortion pill

Thursday, 7 August 2025

Since the government made it possible for house doctors to prescribe the abortion pill at the start of this year, 392 general practitioners have completed the mandatory online additional training to do so. That is 3.2 percent of the total 12,246 GPs registered in the Netherlands, Trouw reports based on figures from Fiom, the expertise center for unwanted pregnancies, which organizes the additional training.

“We didn’t know what to expect beforehand,” Wendy Kersten, a policymaker at Fiom, told Trouw about the number of registrations. “The surveys were very mixed. We think it’s positive that women have more options, but it’s about freedom of choice, and that applies equally to the general practitioner.”

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2025/08/07/nearly-400-dutch-doctors-register-prescribe-abortion-pill

07.08.2025

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Dutch doctors prescribing abortion pill

Netherlands – Significant majority chooses to use contraception after conversation in abortion clinic

April 16, 2025
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)

For a period of one year, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport gave a number of abortion clinics extra time to have conversations about contraception, particularly with people in vulnerable situations. After these conversations, almost 70% opted to use contraception. Almost half opted for long-acting options such as an IUD, and almost one in five opted for a short-acting option such as the pill. These are the results of an evaluation by RIVM of measures to improve access to (free) contraceptives.

Continued: https://www.rivm.nl/en/news/significant-majority-chooses-to-use-contraception-after-conversation-in-abortion-clinic

16.04.2025

News

Ministry of Health Welfare and Sport

National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

‘You are not alone, abortions are more common than you think’

Maya (24) got pregnant by a classmate while pursuing a Bachelor’s in Spanish Language & Culture at UU. She was not ready to have a child and chose to have an abortion. Her story is far from uncommon. Recently, Maya collaborated with writer Diet Groothuis, also a UU graduate, on a young adult novel about the topic. “It’s about time abortion stops being a taboo subject.”

By Marjorie van Elven
April 9, 2025

Three years ago, then UU student Maya decided to stop taking the pill. “I had been taking it since I was 16 and wondered who I was without those hormones,” she recollects. One year later, she got pregnant by a guy in her class, whom she was casually dating. He didn't want to use a condom, and she didn’t use any other contraceptives, such as an IUD. She took the morning-after pill after their first sexual encounter and then got started on the birth control pill again when her period came. A little while later, she found out she was pregnant.

Continued: https://dub.uu.nl/en/depth/you-are-not-alone-abortions-are-more-common-you-think

09.04.2025

Commentary

abortion book

De Langste Één Minuut

Diet Groothuis

Marjorie van Elven

The Longest One Minute

Netherlands – ‘You are not alone, abortions are more common than you think’

By Marjorie van Elven
April 9, 2025

Continued: https://dub.uu.nl/en/depth/you-are-not-alone-abortions-are-more-common-you-think

09.04.2025

Film, Art, Books

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De Langste Één Minuut

Diet Groothuis

Samen Naar de Kliniek

Netherlands – Many women in abortion care did not use contraceptives; Better information needed

Dec 3, 2024

Many women who got an abortion did not use contraceptives to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, Rutgers found in new research. The expertise center for sexuality is concerned about a lack of knowledge and misinformation about fertility, contraceptives, and the chance of getting pregnant.

Rutgers surveyed women aged 16 and older who had requested an abortion. 41 percent had not used contraception. “It is striking that this group is so large,” Rutgers researcher Renee Finkenflügel told NOS. “We know for sure that the women who participated in the study became pregnant unintentionally. There seems to be a lack of information and knowledge about the means to prevent this.”

Continued: https://nltimes.nl/2024/12/03/many-women-abortion-care-use-contraceptives-better-information-needed

03.12.2024

Netherlands – There Are No Stigma-Free Abortions, Even in ‘Progressive’ Countries

There are so many things you’d never know about abortions unless you go through one.

By Maud Droste, Illustrated By Djanlissa Pringels
December 8, 2023

I’m in utter disbelief, staring down at a positive result on a drugstore pregnancy test. It’s March 2020. My relationship had just ended two days before, I’d just found out my roommate and I would be evicted and, thanks to a massive bout of procrastination, I had about a month left to finish my bachelor’s thesis.

Getting pregnant was the last of a long list of life-changing events I hadn’t seen coming. My roommate, however, had. I’d been tired for weeks, the only food I craved was mango – which I inevitably threw up after eating – and I felt ambivalent about absolutely everything. “I think you should probably take a test,” she said.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gay7/no-stigma-free-abortions

08.12.2023