DutchNews, June 27, 2016
Photo: Regering.nl |
A pill which triggers miscarriage in the very early stages of
pregnancy should be available via family doctors, health minister Edith
Schippers has told parliament.
The minister plans to introduce legislation
which will allow GPs to prescribe the pill at the end of the year, according to
the Volkskrant on Monday. The pill, named Sunmedabon, is currently only
available in hospitals and abortion clinics.
Women are often more comfortable
approaching their own doctor so this will make it easier for them to request
the pill early, Schippers said in her briefing to parliament. ‘In addition,
family doctors play an important role in prescribing contraception, so
preventing further unwanted pregnancies after an abortion,’ she said.
The pill
should have been made available via family doctors last year but MPs from the
small Christian parties have so far refused to back the measure and their support
is crucial in the upper house of parliament. The anti-immigration PVV, the
Socialist Party and the Christian Democrats also have their doubts about the
plan, the Volkskrant said.
Limits
Although the pill can be used up to nine
weeks into a pregnancy, experts say doctors should be able limited to
prescribing the pill up to six weeks and two days – or when women are two weeks
late with their period.
Doctors will have to report all prescriptions to the
health ministry inspectorate.
There are some 30,300 abortions in the
Netherlands a year, and over half took place in the first seven weeks of
pregnancy. The Netherlands has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world,
at 8.5 per 1,000 women.
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