_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Belgium_______________
“Morning-after” pill on market
No prescription required
Belgium’s government has announced that it will make the abortifacient “morning-after” pill available without a prescription.
In January Britain became the first European country to make the drug available over the counter; Brussels followed suit on June 10. The government claimed the change could cut the abortion rate among teens. Pro-life advocates countered that the pill itself is a form of abortion.
“Seeing the growing number of terminations of pregnancies among women of less than 20 years was also taken into account in enacting this emergency solution,” Health Minister Magda Alvoet said at a news conference. “Greater availability of the emergency pill will help remove existing obstacles for obtaining this emergency contraception.”
Belgium—a mainly Catholic country whose former King Baudouin abdicated for one day in 1990 to avert a constitutional crisis caused by his refusal to sign a law legalizing abortion—has taken an increasingly liberal stance on social issues in recent years. Following the neighboring Netherlands’ lead, the country legalized personal use of marijuana in January and has taken steps toward legalizing euthanasia.