In a significant policy shift, the Netherlands has now allowed general practitioners, not just specialist clinics and hospitals, to prescribe the abortion pill, following completion of mandatory online training. As of August 2025, 392 GPs -approximately 3.2% of the nation’s 12,246 registered GPs – have qualified to provide medical abortions up to nine weeks of pregnancy.
This development, hailed by policymakers as increasing access to care, may inadvertently normalise abortion and further distance public health from a culture of life.
SPUC affirms that human dignity begins with protecting the unborn, and expanding access to abortion, even at early-term, undermines the principle that life at all stages is valuable. By enabling more doctors to prescribe abortion pills, policy steers healthcare toward convenience rather than life‑affirming alternatives.
Moreover, SPUC continues to voice caution about medical access through non-specialist settings. Past submissions to UK parliamentary inquiries highlighted potential risks of unsupervised medical abortion, including miscalculation of gestational age or incorrect usage of medication, errors that can pose serious danger to women and their unborn babies.
Rather than widening abortion access, SPUC urges policymakers to invest in robust support systems that truly help women facing unintended pregnancies. This includes crisis pregnancy centers, counseling services, social and material assistance, that offer life-affirming alternatives to abortion.
SPUC emphasises that true compassion does not lie in facilitating termination, it lies in creating circumstances where both mother and child are supported and valued. They advocate for policies that reaffirm life’s dignity from conception forward, not policies that signal abortion as routine medical care.
In SPUC’s perspective, the Netherlands’ latest measure marks not progress, but a broader cultural shift away from protecting the most vulnerable. SPUC calls on pro‑life advocates across Europe to renew efforts in healthcare, education, and social welfare, ensuring that the unborn retain both legal protection and a society willing to embrace their right to live.
