Gov't plans to replace "mother" with gender-neutral term in Dutch population register
The government wants to replace the word “mother” in the population register with the term “parent from whom the child was born.” The proposal to switch to the gender-neutral term was submitted to parliament in a collective law, with several other adjustments to existing laws, AD reports.
According to the explanatory memorandum to the bill, the change results from an earlier adjustment to the Civil Registry Decree from 2022. The government then made an exception for transgender people who have a child. For example, someone who still has the biological characteristics of a woman but is already legally registered as a man. In that case, the birth certificate states “parent from whom the child was born” instead of “mother.”
The government believes gender-neutral terminology should also be used in the Basic Registration of Persons Act, hence the adjustment. Minister Hugo de Jonge of Home Affairs said in the official advice on the bill that he does “not expect this bill to lead to much discussion” in parliament.
But the orthodox Christian party SGP is furious. According to MP Andre Flach, this is “an extremely sensitive change” that the Cabinet is “hiding away” by submitting it with other changes. He wants a debate with De Jonge.
According to Flach, three years ago, the Caibnet still said that removing the “mother” and “father” designation was undesirable because many parents consider the legal interpretation of mother important. “Now they want to remove the designation for everyone while there is already a solution for a small group,” he told AD.
