Utrecht Mayor presses for law to block anti-abortion protests at clinic doors
Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma is calling on the Dutch government to introduce national legislation banning anti-abortion protests directly in front of clinics, after the highest administrative court allowed activists to demonstrate at the doors of a Utrecht clinic.
According to NOS, the ruling is related to the Christian group Jezus Leeft, which the court allowed to protest directly outside the clinic with slogans such as “abortion is murder.” Utrecht had attempted to enforce a buffer zone but was overruled.
Dijksma said she wants legal tools from The Hague. “So that people can demonstrate within sight and hearing, but at such a distance that women have free access to the clinic,” she said. She argued that the court had only judged under the law protecting protest rights. “While in my view, a demonstration is never directed at an individual. What we see now is clashing fundamental rights. It no longer has anything to do with demonstrating, but with preventing someone from exercising her own fundamental right.”
Small but increasingly assertive groups of anti-abortion activists have targeted clinics for years. Cases are still pending at the Council of State over demonstrations in Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Groningen.
The Netherlands has no law against protests near abortion clinics, but other countries do. The United Kingdom last year introduced a mandatory 150-meter buffer zone, and Spain also enforces “safe zones” around clinics.
Women seeking care often report intimidation. Nineteen-year-old Hannah Hentenaar, who chose to end an unwanted pregnancy this summer, said she was shaken by the activists she encountered. Her family doctor had warned her beforehand about the demonstrators.
“They just know so well what to say that at one point I thought: isn’t it strange what I’m doing?” she told NOS. Protesters handed her tiny baby dolls. “So that you feel like you are actually murdering the baby in your hands. But you don’t have such a small baby in your belly. That’s what they do, making people feel guilty.”
Activists defend their presence. Marieke Heuvelman of Kies Leven said she stands weekly outside a clinic in Rotterdam. “We call it keeping vigil. We give a leaflet and, if they want, we start a conversation. In practice, women regularly want to talk,” she told the newspaper. Her flyer reads: “You are not alone. We are happy to help you with concrete support. You are stronger than you think, simply because this baby is worth it. Abortion is not an interruption of pregnancy. It is the killing of an unborn child.”
Inside the Rotterdam clinic, abortion physician Anneke van Soest said she regularly sees women unsettled by the protesters. “They already have to justify themselves, they have already spoken to those in their environment and given reasons for their choice. And then they are also addressed by a stranger, often in a not-mild way,” she told NOS.
Van Soest added that the “help” activists claim to offer is unnecessary. “If doctors doubt whether someone is ready or has thought it all through, then we do not perform an abortion. She is sent home and may make a new appointment when she is sure of her choice.” She also said some women initially turn away after being pressured but later return to complete the procedure.
