Abortion in the Netherlands:

Every year the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) presents a report to Parliament with comments about New Zealand's abortion services, detailed statistics and suggestions for reducing abortion levels.

In its 1994 report the ASC said: “The experience in the Netherlands shows that if there is a fully informed and really free choice between abortion and contraception, the latter will be chosen. In the Netherlands the high incidence of use of reliable contraception is virtually the sole reason for the low abortion rate.”

This comment was repeated in their 1995 report and was taken further in 1997 when they said:

“In recent reports to Parliament the Committee has mentioned the Netherlands abortion rate as being the lowest in the western world at 5.6 and one that New Zealand should aim to emulate. The Netherlands experience suggests that it is possible to greatly reduce women's need for abortion and at the same time have it performed humanely and safely in the few inevitable cases.

“In view of public criticisms that the reported Netherlands abortion rate is not a true one, the Committee has made extensive inquiries from the Netherlands Government and consulted academic literature to understand the reasons why the low abortion rate has occurred, and how it was achieved.

“The reasons are many and varied, but the overwhelming answer is that the people determined that abortion should be used as a last resort, and so they have achieved a very high contraceptive compliance rate.

“Sexual health education in the Netherlands begins at an early age. It is non judgmental and positive and is a life–long process involving a variety of approaches and media.

“Teenage magazines and television programmes are explicit with the focus being on real problems and real feelings. Government policies have moved towards acceptance of private values and lifestyles associated with a strong public emphasis on personal responsibility for reproductive behaviour.

“The lower abortion rate did not result from sexual abstinence, rejection of induced abortion as a means of resolving unwanted pregnancy, widespread use of emergency contraception, or data manipulation .... unplanned pregnancies are rare because most couples practice effective contraception. Abortion is deemed a last resort that should be prevented'.(1)

“The Committee is of the opinion that New Zealand can learn from overseas experience.”

In 1998, members of the ASC went to the Netherlands to study its abortion services, sexuality education and the strategies being used to prevent unplanned pregnancies. They met with members of the Institute of Social Sexological Research, the Ministry of Health, Amsterdam's leading abortion clinic Stichting MR '70 and Stimezo — the umbrella group co–ordinating Holland's abortion clinics.

As a result of this overseas trip, the Committee said it believed the New Zealand law should be reviewed. They recommended to Parliament: “That the Minister of Justice arrange a review of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 in the interests of the women of New Zealand.”

In discussing how the Netherlands had achieved such a low abortion rate they said:

“There is no simple formula for the Dutch success in the prevention of unplanned pregnancy. A strong cultural emphasis on individual responsibility, open parental discussion, sexuality education in schools and respect for unborn life all contribute, with the result that contraception is preferred to abortion. Abortion is a last resort.”

(1) H.R David and J. Rademakers. Lessons from the Dutch Abortion Experience, Studies in Family Planning, Vol.27., No.6., 1996, p.341