Abortions in the Netherlands surged by 15% in 2022, with the most significant increase among women aged 30-35, reveals a report by IGJ.
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The Netherlands witnessed a substantial uptick in abortion rates last year.
The latest report from the Dutch Healthcare and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) provides an in-depth look at the current situation.
Alarming Increase in 2022
Abortions in the Netherlands rose by an alarming 15% in 2022.
The year saw a total of 35,606 women choosing to terminate their pregnancies.
This markedly increased compared to the slightly declining rates observed in 2020 and 2021.
Breakdown by Age Groups
Interestingly, the escalation was more or less uniform across all age groups.
However, teenagers reported a slightly lesser increase, with a rise of 13 percent in abortion rates.
The data reveals that women aged between 30 to 35 were the most likely to choose termination.
Those closely followed them in the 25 to 30 age bracket.
Domestic vs. Foreign Cases
Diving deeper into the numbers, nine out of ten women who opted for abortion in medical establishments were Dutch residents.
However, the proportion of foreign women seeking abortions saw a marginal increase, accounting for 9.2 percent.
Legal Framework and Practices
Abortion in the Netherlands is primarily legally permissible up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
However, in real-world practice, 22 weeks is the widely accepted duration due to the potential inaccuracies in determining the exact length of pregnancy.
Beyond the 24-week mark, medical professionals are permitted to terminate the pregnancy only for grave medical reasons, such as the fetus’s inability to survive outside the womb.
Lack of Explanation for the Surge
The IGJ’s report, while comprehensive, does not provide a clear-cut reason behind the soaring abortion rates.
Although clinics and hospitals must submit data to the inspectorate, they are constrained by privacy laws from conducting deeper analyses.
This restriction is explicitly in place to guarantee that individual abortion cases remain untraceable.
It remains to be seen what factors contributed to this drastic increase and how the Netherlands, as a society, will respond to these changing dynamics.
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