Professor Sjef Gevers:

It is embedded in the whole health care area in the sense that much health legislation applies to abortion services, for instance, legislation on patients rights, quality and safety in health care and the medical professions. In that sense, it is part of health care. When we had the evaluation of the abortion Act in 2005, some of the abortion specialists or physicians who came forward sent us a letter asking us to consider in our recommendations that they were already subject to so much other legislation. They asked why they could not be removed from the criminal system and if we really needed to have this criminal code context. We did not make such a recommendation in our study. If we had done so, I am sure it would not have been accepted by politics and the Dutch Parliament and Government because, as I stated, under Dutch law, unborn life is considered to deserve some degree of protection. It makes sense that this protection is also provided by means of criminal law. I would be very surprised if this position changed in the foreseeable future and abortion was taken out of the criminal law. At the same time, abortion, as it is performed in practice, does not have the burden or association of a criminal act, which the Deputy may have understood from what we said.

Professor Sjef Gevers: It is embedded in the whole health care area in the sense that much health legislation applies to abortion services, for instance, legislation on patients rights, quality and safety in health care and the medical professions. In that sense, it is part of health care. When we had the evaluation of the abortion Act in 2005, a group of abortion specialists or physicians sent us a letter asking that we consider in our recommendations that they were already subject to so much other legislation. They asked why they could not be removed from the criminal system and if we really needed to have this criminal code context. In our study, we did not make such a recommendation. If we had done so, I am sure it would not have been accepted by politics and the Dutch Parliament and Government because, as I stated, under Dutch law, unborn life is considered to deserve some degree of protection. It makes sense that this protection is also provided by means of criminal law. I would be very surprised if, in the foreseeable future, this position were to change and abortion were taken out of the criminal law. At the same time, abortionas it is performed in practice, does not have the burden or the association of a criminal act, as the Deputy may have understood from what we have said.