Higher abortion rates among immigrants

16 February 2007

BRUSSELS — Of the women that decide to have an abortion in Belgium, 40 percent are of immigrant origin, a KU Leuven survey showed. It is mostly young women from Central and Eastern Europe and from Africa, member of Parliament Vera Jans says in Het Belang Van Limburg.

According to the National Pregnancy Termination Review Committee, there were 17,314 abortions carried out in Belgium in 2005, out of which 6,200 were in women under 24.

Many immigrant women in the survey described their living conditions as very unstable.

Subject: Belgian news