Advocate General: Rejection of free contraceptives for women justified

The rejection by the Court of Appeal in The Hague of the demand to make contraceptives free for adult women is permissible. This is the conclusion reached by the Advocate General at the Supreme Court. Bureau Clara Wichmann and other organizations had started a lawsuit to have such resources reimbursed by the State because they assume that women usually pay the costs and they do not think that is fair.

Acoording to Linde Bryk, Head of Strategic Litigation at Bureau Clara Wichmann, contraception is a “fundamental reproductive right, the costs of which cannot and should not be placed solely on the woman. With this appeal, we ask the Court of Appeal to eliminate this inequality, so that contraception becomes free, something that benefits the entire society,” she said before the ruling.

The court of appeal rejected the claim in September last year, as did the district court earlier, and was therefore right according to the advocate general. The district court and the court of appeal ruled that it is not the responsibility of the State that women usually pay if that is the case at all. According to the court, that is not even a given. After all, society as a whole would benefit from it.

The Advocate General advises the Supreme Court to leave the decision of the Court of Appeal as it is. According to the conclusion, there are no grounds for annulment.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020 by the five organizations and more than 7,300 co-plaintiffs, according to Bureau Clara Wichmann.