A bill to extend the abortion limit in Belgium from 12 to 18 weeks has been rejected. However, the reason for this offers little hope. This image was created with the help of artificial intelligence.
Belgian Abortion Law Expansion not going ahead, but for how long?
In Belgium, too, the abortion lobby is trying to expand the legislation on abortion. This week, a proposal for more liberal abortion laws was rejected. The reason? The majority of MPs arrived late, causing the session to be cancelled.
Extending the Abortion Limit
The Abortion Right platform complains about a “deep malaise” in the government.1 For ten years, left-wing activists have been trying to relax the current twelve-week abortion limit. The bill proposed by Ecolo-Groen (a left-wing, Walloon-Flemish party) was to extend the term to eighteen weeks and to scrap the mandatory reflection period, which is currently six days in Belgium. Prime Minister Bart de Wever told The Brussels Times in 2020 that he thought such a relaxation was ‘really not a good idea’.2 Three years later, the same newspaper reports that his party is now open to a smaller relaxation, for example to 14 weeks.
Read also: TFP Pro-life Caravan Receives Growing Support and Anger from the Left
Majority in favour of “relaxation”
The Belgian majority representatives promise a new proposal for “better access to abortion” before the end of the year. Abortion Right calls on Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden to join in. Proponents of the relaxation argue that the current abortion law (1990) is outdated and does not reflect the “progressive” population of Belgium. They base their argument on, among other things, a survey by Amnesty International, which shows that 92.5% of the Belgian nation are in favour of abortion.3
To the Netherlands for Late-Term Abortion
As in Germany and other countries, the twelve-week limit is not absolute. If there are medical risks to the mother, or if the child is found to have serious abnormalities, abortion is also possible after that time. In other cases, Belgian women travel to the Netherlands for a late-term abortion. According to Medi-Sphere, there are about 400 such cases per year.
Delay of Execution?
Although it is of course good news for the unborn child that the abortion limit will remain at twelve weeks for the time being, it remains to be seen how long this will remain the case. In Denmark, this limit has also been extended from twelve to eighteen weeks this year. There seems to be a tendency for countries to follow the shameful precedent set by countries that are at the forefront of abortion legislation. Let us pray and act that after the elections we will have a cabinet that sets a better example.
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Footnotes:
- The country’s clinics cater for European women who have passed the legal deadline in their own country, including several hundred women living in Belgium every year. 09/2024_Status-Overview-Abortion-in-Europe_-EN.pdf, page 24.
- The Brussels Times, Abortion rights law could torpedo Belgium's government formation, Tuesday 14 July 2020.
- Amnesty International Belgium submission to the UN Human Rights Committee 145th session, 6-10 October 2025, list of issues prior to reporting, section 5. ABORTION (Articles 2(1), 6 and 7).