Abortion issue in Belgium
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by: kagerkevin
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What impact did the women's movement have on this abortion debate? As in the first debate the answer is that there was cooptation, which means that women, more explicitly feminist women, were involved in the decision making process, but the women's movement was not satisfied with the outcome of the debate. Members of Parliament like Leona Detiège made sure there was a flow of feminist demands to Parliament. Most significant was a memorandum from the Committee for the Suspension of Prosecution of abortion Cases, supported by the feminist movement; many feminists were also members of this Committee. Detiège informed the MPs about the content of the memorandum. Thus both women and feminist ideas were directly and indirectly present in the parliamentary debates. It should be stressed, however, that male Members of Parliament also voiced the feminist point of view, particularly on the right of self-determination. This representation is nevertheless incomplete: those women who took part in the decision-making process were MPs. Fuller representation would have meant, for instance, a committee with formal representatives of the women's movement, or parliamentary procedures—for example, hearings—involving women, individually and in groups, in the decision-making process.
We cannot state, however, that the outcome of the debate was satisfactory for the women's movement. The proposal to suspend prosecutions failed to pass without even provisionallegalization. Even a suspension with a period of leniency would have been better than the status quo—continued criminalization of abortion —which was the outcome of this debate.
Neither existing women's policy agencies, their characteristics, nor their symbolic role in the abortion issue had changed since the previous debate. This was so despite the fact that the 1980 United Nations World Conference for Women in Copenhagen encouraged member states to ban dangerous and illegal abortions as a measure for family planning. When the Belgian section established the agenda for internal legislation, abortion was not mentioned. In September 1981, Françoise Lavry, a feminist, assumed the presidency of the Consultative Commission. Nevertheless, agencies did not advocate women's movement goals and did not gender the policy debate. With regard to this phase of the abortion debate they remain symbolic.
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This article is written by Kevin K. Livingstone, professional writer working at <a href="http://custom-paper-writing.com/custom_essay_writing" target="_blank">custom essay writing</a>
. Kevin has more than 10 years of essay writing experience and is dedicated to helping students with their academic assignments such as <a href="http://custom-paper-writing.com/custom_research_paper" target="_blank">custom research paper</a> and <a href="http://custom-paper-writing.com/admission-essay-service" target="_blank">admission essay writing</a>. Students of all academic levels are welcome to ask for assistance.
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