Professor Sjef Gevers:

There has not been a referendum on the abortion Act. I think if there was one, as I have tried to say before, it would be widely endorsed. The Senator says the language is harsh. To some extent it is. I think in several countries, maybe most countries of Europe, the criminal code is still the basis when we talk about abortion. Abortion is only allowed within specific circumstances spelled out in national laws. In the Netherlands, we have this concept of emergency, which was already mentioned. An important issue in the parliamentary debates in the 1980s was how this concept should be applied. The final agreement was that the law should not go into further detail when one could say that an emergency existed. This was done deliberately to take account of the fact that the situations in which a woman might be in a situation of despair because of an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy might be so diverse. The Legislature refrained from going into substantive criteria because of this. That explains why so many different situations can be taken into account, provided that the decision is made in due care and after good reflection and so on. The procedural aspect of the law is more important than substantive reasons. They are not to be found in the law except for the very general concept of emergency.