THE HAGUE--Dutch State Secretary for Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten shares the concerns of the Second Chamber about reports of illegal abortion practices in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

She stated this in response to questions posed by Members of Dutch Parliament (MPs) Ineke van Gent of the green left party GroenLinks and Johan Remkes of the liberal democratic VVD party. Van Gent and Remkes posed questions about illegal abortion practices on the islands following media reports and the thesis of Wendele van der Wiele.

Bijleveld-Schouten has forwarded several of the questions by Van Gent and Remkes to the Governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba with the request to provide information. The MPs had asked about the consequences of the legal prohibition of abortion on the islands.

Van Gent and Remkes wanted to know how many women resorted to alternative methods to provoke abortion, which methods these women used, and what the health consequences were of these alternative methods. They also asked about the supervision of medical tolerability of these alternative methods. They wanted to know whether it was true that general practitioners performed abortions, but that because of the high cost involved, women resorted to alternative methods.

Bijleveld-Schouten said in first instance, this matter concerned the internal affairs of the governments of the islands. She wanted to await the answers by the Governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba to obtain a better insight into the size and nature of the problem.

The State Secretary said the Second Chamber, in early March, approved an amendment by Remkes, Van Gent, and John Leerdam of the Labour Party PvdA, to legalise abortion on the BES islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba in one year. Abortion is legal in the Netherlands and the Second Chamber agreed that this was a fundamental right of women that should also apply to the BES islands when they become part of the Netherlands as "public entities."