Professor Eva Pajkrt:

I absolutely agree. The Deputy has made a couple of points. In Holland, we call such terminations medical abortions but the use of the word "medical" is potentially confusing. It is more accurate to call it an abortion for medical reasons. Such abortions can arise if the foetus or the mother has a medical condition and it would be unsafe to carry on with the pregnancy. If a woman has psychiatric difficulties or is suicidal, that could also be a reason. There has been a long discussion about the latter reason in terms of when the mother's life is really in danger. In the latest evaluation, that is now outside of the criminal law. If it is mandatory to perform an abortion in order to save the woman's life, a doctor does not have to blink or wait but can just do it and there will be no repercussions whatsoever.

We call the other reasons for terminations social indications. The Deputy may call them socioeconomic reasons; we call them social indications. Reasons such as rape, incest, housing and so on all come under social indications.