Holland: A Pro-Abortion Country Tolerant on Everything, Except Unborn Babies
Abortion in Holland – an interview with Irene van der Wende (below right), founder of the organization Abortioninformation.eu (and AbortusInformatie.nl)
Natalia Dueholm: Is it true that abortion is still a crime in Holland in certain cases?
Irene van der Wende:
Holland – a country claiming to be very tolerant – is intolerant of babies, cruelly attacking them. It’s a humanitarian crisis, marketed through political, rational, and persuasive discourses. Abortion is still considered a crime. The Netherlands (Holland) has an “Abortion is illegal unless…” system.
The law, Wet Abreking Zwangerschap (WAZ/BAZ/Wafz) doesn’t mention a time until when abortions are legal. Abortion for social reasons is officially allowed up to “reasonable expectation of viability”, which some term as 24 weeks although this is not specified in the law itself, but in an explanatory memorandum. Legal expert Don Ceder recently debated in a national symposium that “the government website states that the 24 week limit is defined in criminal law. But this is not the case.” He claims criminal law rather speaks of a “viability limit”.
The abortion law has, however, ensured that authorized doctors who perform abortions are not penalized if the woman declares an “emergency situation” as the reason to perform an abortion. The law deliberately doesn’t mention what can be deemed an emergency situation. The decision for the abortion is made by the woman who is pregnant. A father has no say in the matter.
The cases which involve urgent medical attention or rape aren’t mentioned by law. If a girl is between 12 and 16 years old, an abortionist can give approval for the abortion without the parents ever finding out.
Abortion can be performed in both hospitals and clinics, right?
The abortion may only be performed in a hospital or clinic with a special permit. We have 16 abortion clinics and 99 hospitals that have the government permit, according to the Inspector’s IGZ (Inspectie voor Gezondheidszorg or the health inspector) website. That is basically all the general hospitals in the country.
Only some clinics may perform 2nd trimester abortions after 12/13 weeks – if they do, a minimum of 2 doctors should be present in the clinic during the treatment.
The Netherlands is apparently one of around ten countries (of 193) that allow abortion after 14 weeks, according to a lawyer Clarke Forsythe. But the Netherlands also allows abortions after viability, for medical reasons, and euthanasia of newborns up to 1 year of age.
Besides that, the world is often told that women who have an abortion officially have to have a five days waiting period. However, what they often fail to add, is that the five-day waiting period is only required from 44 days – 6 weeks — onwards (after last menstrual period [LMP]).Babies killed in these first 44 days, which they conveniently call “16 days overdue” or OTB (overtijdbehandeling) are not considered abortions requiring the 5 day waiting period.
You mentioned that abortions are performed in Holland in government hospitals and clinics that have government permits. Are the clinics controlled and monitored by the government to ensure compliance with the law?
The government is supposed to inspect/visit and audit all health care facilities in the country annually. However, according to the director of the CASA chain of abortion clinics, “The inspection will come, but only if something went wrong,so they will only come afterwards”. A recent newspaper article though mentioned that in 2013 they did actually inspect all abortion clinics, claiming the inspector said, “abortion care in the Netherlands is generally of good quality”.
Do you know of any problems with the clinics?
Occasionally, one can find out about some problems with an abortion clinic, like in Utrecht where there was talk of unqualified staff and unsanitary conditions. 600 patients had to be tested for HIV and hepatitis because of problems with disinfecting equipment. Earlier in 2001 a 17-year-old girl died due to an abortion procedure there after she had been injected with anesthesia 10 times too strong. Abortion clinics in The Hague (PretermRutgers) and Amsterdam (Wong Oosterpark) were accused of financial mismanagement; however, the court verdicts don’t seem to reflect this. The Hague was said to have omitted listing abortions they gave to women from abroad, pocketing the cash money the women paid, according to an insider.
The abortion clinic in the Hague that had to close due to fraud etc, reopened as the first euthanasia clinic for adults, called “Levenseindekliniek” (life-ending clinic). It is the former PretermRutgers abortion clinic in The Hague.
What about the information on hospitals that perform abortions?
A few years ago, when I asked the government and inspector for an up to date list of the hospitals that are allowed to perform abortions, they said they couldn’t give me a list of the various hospitals, and sent me on a wild goose chase. I responded that I was surprised, as they were supposed to inspect them, and yet couldn’t even provide a list of where to inspect.
According to Bert van Herk (chairman of the board of directors) from CASA abortion clinics, 5 percent of abortions are done in hospitals. He says these are mostly done for educational purposes, or for ending a pregnancy that initially was desired. However I know of women who have had abortions at hospitals for no medical reason whatsoever.
There is also around 40% under-registration of admissions and operations done (in general) in 2011 in hospitals in the Netherlands in the LMR reporting, according to CBS (3% in 2005)[1]. The Rutgers Nisso report of 2008 stated on page 3 that some clinics and hospitals do not participate in the National Abortion Register and therefore only 85% of all abortions are included.
The government must compile a report on abortion in Holland. What type of information is gathered?
Abortions for residents of the Netherlands are paid for by the government, through a system called AWBZ. The annual WAZ report provides data, based on a set of questions that the doctors have to answer. Although the law says abortions may only take place if there is an “emergency situation” this question is not on the forms. However, they are asked if it had to do with prenatal diagnostics.
What about informed consent and complications from abortion?
The number of complications listed in the WAZ report over 2010[2] was 322, while there were 466 in 2012[3], an increase of some 44%.
In 2012 there were around 150 incomplete abortions (for example, a foot left inside womb), with 24 women having a damaged uterus. 379 women were treated in the local facility for their complications, while 41 women were referred to a hospital for further treatment. Besides extreme blood loss of over ½ liter (125 cases), infection and medication side effects (35 cases), along with the aforementioned damaged uterus and incomplete abortions, there were around 130 other complications not further specified. They no longer report separately a torn cervix (which they did in 2010). The reporting has not been standardized throughout the years.
I am surprised at the seemingly low numbers. One would tend to think that England is not very different from Holland with regards to complications from abortion. Yet in one month, standing outside an abortion clinic in Ealing UK, an ambulance was seen to arrive 5 times in the course of month[4].
Recently a school student doing research concerning abortion emailed an abortion clinic here in Holland asking them what they tell women about the possible risks of abortion. She forwarded me the answer they sent her by email, which said ” is door ons niet te beantwoorden. Gevolgen zijn voor iedereen anders”. “This cannot be answered by us. The effects are different for everybody”.
Yet these clinics are supposed to give all the information. That’s what “informed consent” means. However, the abortion law does not require a woman to sign an “informed consent” form. The doctor only has to mention that informed consent was obtained.
Do abortion statistics provided by the government contain any reliable data about hospital and clinic abortions? Are pill-abortions included?
The data provided in government reports raises several questions.
It was only in 2009 that it became compulsory to report the age of the baby that was killed.
It also took many years before it became compulsory to give the government the so-called “menstrual extraction” numbers, also known as “OverDue Treatment OTB”, or “early abortions”. These babies, at 6.5 weeks, (44 days LMP) already have a beating heart, arms developing, along with pain receptors, lungs, intestines, eyes, nose, tongue, liver and stomach etc. But for some odd reason these babies are considered even more less-than-human, not considered as abortions in the same way, and don’t have to adhere to the 5 day waiting period. They can be killed using medication (abortion pill) or instruments (curettage) – no different from a normal abortion.
In 2011 it still was not compulsory to include these 44 day OTB abortions[5] so it is hard to tell if they are all included. Maybe thousands of them are unreported? Our Health Minister said 15 March 2013 there are over 16,000 OverDue Treatments OTB (babies up to 44 days) annually[6]. It is a big number.
Click here to sign up for daily pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
The reports do include abortion pill abortions, but don’t include the morning after pill, which is now also sold via pharmacies without prescription, not to mention the normal regular hormonal contraception that can cause abortion due to stopping implantation of the baby into the lining of the womb after a week of development.
The official WAZ reports also do not include the abortions that were done after 24 weeks, the 3rd trimester. If doctors do perform abortions after 24 weeks, it has been mandatory for them since 2007 to report cases of late pregnancy (LZA) and neonatal life termination (Groningen Protocol). For these children, no death certificate is made, but doctors report it with a special form.
According to an on–line article[7], it was surprising there were only 3 reports of late abortions after 24 weeks, and no baby killed after birth, as dozens of such reports had been expected.
Why “the expectation” of more babies killed in the third trimester?
Some researchers suggested in 2013 that the numbers are probably much higher, but the doctors fear reporting them since the law is strict. New legislation (LZA) from 2007 says that there needs to be absolute certainty about the diagnosis and prognosis of the sickness of the child. But that is often very difficult based on an ultrasound.
Earlier, in 1996, a major Dutch newspaper, Volkskrant, reported that between 1990 and 1995 more than half of thehospitals in the province of North Holland performed late-term abortions after 24 weeks. The article said that abortions after 24 weeks count as manslaughter or murder, according to the Criminal Code, and are therefore punishable. But doctors can use a distress situation/emergency exception. They signed off the late abortions as “natural death” on the death certificates in the majority (91 of 103) of the cases.
The government inspection agreed that the term “natural death” could be used. An agreement had been made with the public prosecutor to call abortions above 24 weeks “natural death” – saving the parents the stress of being investigated by the justice system.
Furthermore, could it be that calling abortions after 24 weeks a “natural death” has lead to the Netherlands to be rated as one of the countries with the highest rate of “infant mortality” (babies born dead) in the whole of Europe? Almost 1700 babies are reported dying just prior, during, or after birth, annually. There was a media frenzy attempting to blame home births, or hospitals not being up to par, but some articles were clear that abortions after 24 weeks are now recorded in this manner in the Peristat[8] reporting system, but this did not reach the regular media.
How do Dutch gynecologists feel about abortion?
More than half of the 77 surveyed gynecologists said they had performed a late term abortion over 24 weeks. According to an on-line article[9], Dutch gynecologists want the abortion restrictions removed for abortions beyond 24 weeks.
Holland is often cited by the abortion lobby for its small number of abortions. Is this correctly stated?
Marketing slogans are made to be simple and catchy. Public opinion is in reality carefully crafted and scripted propaganda, designed to elicit a desired behavioral response, and shortcut our minds from critical examination. Bernard Nathanson, one of the founders of the abortion league in the USA, NARAL, said “I remember laughing when we made those slogans up…..We were looking for some sexy, catchy slogans to capture public opinion. They were very cynical slogans then, just as all of these slogans today are very, very cynical[10].” “Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public.”
Indeed, page 11 of our latest government report of 2012 claims in Conclusions 2.1: “The abortion rate (abortuscijfer) … was 8.5. With this, the Netherlands, as in previous years, ranks with thecountries with the lowestabortion rates.[11]”
But, in 1975 the number of babies Holland was responsible for killing through abortion was around 15.500, while 30.577 babies lost their lives in Holland in 2012. This is almost double[12]. The abortion ratio (abortusratio) increased 65% from 93 to 153 between 1990 and 2012, while the “abortion rate” (abortuscijfer) rose 67% between 1990 and 2002 from 5.2 to 8.7.
Holland avoids the term “percentage” of actual number of abortions compared to the actual number of live births, which would paint a different picture when compared to other countries.
We have stripped all rights from a class of human beings and reduced them to nothing more than the property of others. Human rights of the unborn are being violated. They are an unseen discriminated group of people – the “undocumented” ones – a group of so-called “underclass” humans.
Our country will continue to tolerate abortion as long as they never see abortion and what it does to the baby. Our organization AbortusInformatie.nl exposes the horrors that take place daily behind closed abortion clinic doors. But despite so-called “freedom of speech” we often encounter “opinion police” and “viewpoint blackmail”, that bullies into silence anyone who shows moral objections to killing babies. If it’s legal to kill babies, calling them “not human”, then there should be no problem showing the world what these “not humans” look like after they are killed, like animal activists do. Thankfully some public servants still know the difference between serving the public and killing the public.
[2]http://www.igz.nl/Images/Jaarrapportage%20WAZ%202010_tcm294-320369.pdf
[4]http://mariastopsabortion.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/ambulance-arrives-at-abortion-centre.html
[5]http://assets.fiomedia.nl/files/Jaarrapportage_Wetafbrekingzwangerschap_2011.pdf
[7]http://www.deondernemer.nl/binnenland/261271/Late-abortus-niet-gemeld.html
[10]http://www.pregnantpause.org/abort/remember-naral.htm
[11]WAZ report 2012, page 11 conclusie http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten-en-publicaties/rapporten/2013/12/06/jaarrapportage-2012-van-de-wet-afbreking-zwangerschap.html
[12] WAZ report 2012 page 37 attachment 2; page 17 figure 4; page 16 figure 3 http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten-en-publicaties/rapporten/2013/12/06/jaarrapportage-2012-van-de-wet-afbreking-zwangerschap.html
LifeNews Note: Natalia Dueholm is a Polish journalist, an editor of a quarterly “Opcja na Prawo”. She wrote an Open Letter of Women Journalists Against Abortion (available also in English).
