Wingnuts over Holland

The socalled “freedom party” is a Dutch extreme righwing party founded by professional Islamophobe Geert Wilders. In an effort to prove that all Wingnuts over Holland, it has now proposed to force women undergoing abortion to pay for it themselves and so stop the government subsidising abortion clinics. This proposal is so absurd that even the main anti-abortion organisation in the Netherlands, the VBOK, has rejected it. They prefer (sex) education in schools and practical support for unplanned pregnancies as ways to minimise the number of abortions.

The Netherlands, which has always had a large population of conservative Christians, was late in legalising abortion, only doing so in 1984. Since then it had largely stopped being a controversial subject, playing little to no role in politics, with none of the battles waged against it as seen in the US. Opponents largely concentrated either on limiting the need for abortions through sex ed and use of birth control or on providing support for women going through unplanned pregnancies.

With the worldwide return of conservatism since 2001 however wingnut ideas about abortion have been introduced here as well. It’s not just a fringe party coming up with such ideas to make abortion more difficult, the government as well has floated ideas to make it harder, Dutch police has taken an interest in prosecuting women for undergoing “illegal” abortions abroad, etc. The wingnut right thinks it’s in the ascend, so is now much more confident in attacking hardwon liberties.