In Belgium abortion is legal 12 weeks after conception, with many women travelling across the border to the Netherlands in order to terminate pregnancies later.
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00:00The 12-week legal limit for abortion in Belgium leads more than 300 women a year to travel
00:07to the Netherlands to terminate their pregnancies, according to pro-choice associations.
00:13The legislation, unchanged since 1990, also obliges a six-day reflection period, which
00:19for the centres responsible for carrying out abortions is incompatible with the reality
00:25of many women.
00:27We stopped at 12 weeks of pregnancy, but we have people who unfortunately exceed this
00:34delay for a lot of reasons, and not because they want to delay asking for an abortion,
00:39as we sometimes hear.
00:41And then there is this completely arbitrary rule, which is the delay of reflection.
00:46The woman who makes her request today must wait six days before she can have an abortion,
00:52whereas maybe she had already thought about it for 15 days before contacting us, or others
00:56will have done their pregnancy test this morning and then contact us.
01:00So what we are asking for is this flexibility to be able to adapt to each situation and
01:03to be able to respond positively to each situation.
01:06Having to travel to another country to have an abortion is a reality for many within the
01:11European Union, due to the legislation of different member states.
01:16Abortion time limits vary from 10 weeks in Portugal to 24 weeks in the Netherlands.
01:21More than half have set this limit at 12 weeks.
01:24In Malta and Poland, it is only legal if the mother's life is in danger.
01:52The European Parliament voted to include access to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
02:14However, it was not binding, as health issues are considered part of each country's legislative
02:20remiss.