{"id":22596,"date":"2026-07-17T14:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/?page_id=22596"},"modified":"2026-07-17T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:40:08","slug":"abortus-22-24-weken","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/studies\/abortus-22-24-weken\/","title":{"rendered":"A 23-week-old foetus: save it or terminate the pregnancy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe style=\"background: url('https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/studies\/A-23-week-old-foetus-save-it-or-terminate-the-pregnancy.jpg') no-repeat center center \/ cover;\" id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/embed\/v7ao9cs\/?pub=2102lq\" allowfullscreen frameBorder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>\n\n<style> .fallback-yt { cursor: pointer; } <\/style>\n\n<button class=\"fallback-yt tooltip\" title=\"Click to watch through a different stream\" onclick=\"document.getElementById('lbry-iframe').src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/__8rnVX_8s0'\">YouTube<\/button>\n<button class=\"fallback-yt tooltip\" title=\"Click to watch through a different stream\" onclick=\"document.getElementById('lbry-iframe').src='https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/@apologeet:3\/a-23-week-old-foetus-save-it-or-terminate'\">Odysee<\/button>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Gynaecologists want to extend the limit for abortion beyond 22 weeks <br> what on earth are we doing?<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"\">Over the past few years, my wife and I have been blessed to experience the miracle of pregnancy five times.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Five times we saw a tiny beating heart on an ultrasound scan. Five times we watched a baby grow before we could ever hold him or her. Each pregnancy made a deep impression on me anew. When you see those images, it is hard not to realise that it is not just \u2018something\u2019 growing there, but that a unique human life is developing.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Perhaps that is also why this news affects me so deeply.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Gynaecologists are calling for abortions between 22 and 24 weeks\u2019 gestation to be carried out more easily in hospitals. There is talk of better care. Of accessibility. Of improving abortion services.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And to be honest\u2026 I can\u2019t get my head round it; this news has deeply angered me.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">It seems we\u2019re becoming less and less aware of who we\u2019re actually talking about.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What is the proposal?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">The proposal is not to raise the legal limit for abortion. In the Netherlands, a pregnancy can be terminated up to around 24 weeks within the legal framework. But this now concerns abortions between 22 and 24 weeks without any medical reason. In the Netherlands, abortions up to week 22 are carried out in abortion clinics. Pregnancies between 22 and 24 weeks are, in fact, only terminated in hospitals in the Netherlands, and only if there are medical reasons for doing so. This means that women who wish to terminate their late-stage pregnancy for social reasons have to seek treatment abroad.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Now, the Dutch Society for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (NVOG) has stated that abortion services should be more evenly distributed across the country and has called on hospitals to cooperate in this regard.<\/p>\n\n<h3>The baby we save vs. the baby we abort<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">Think about this for a moment. A baby is born far too early at 23 weeks. Doctors do everything in their power. A whole team fights for his life. Every breath counts. Every gram of weight is important. Everyone hopes he\u2019ll make it.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But that same baby\u2026 at the same stage of pregnancy\u2026 at the same stage of development\u2026 can, whilst still in the womb, be deliberately killed.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">What exactly has changed?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">That is not a rhetorical question. In my view, that is the very question at the heart of the matter.<\/p>\n\n<h3>An ethical dilemma for the hospital<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">There is another question I hardly ever hear anyone ask.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">What does this actually mean for doctors, nurses and midwives?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">People who work in hospitals usually choose their profession because they want to save lives. They are trained to provide every possible care to a premature baby born at 23 weeks.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And now it is being proposed that those very same hospitals should carry out abortions between 22 and 24 weeks more frequently.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">In the case of a termination at this stage of pregnancy, labour is usually induced artificially. In many countries, and according to the guidelines of the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, <b>foeticide<\/b> is carried out before labour is induced: an injection is used in an attempt to stop the unborn child\u2019s heartbeat.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">You heard that right! That baby is killed by means of an injection of potassium chloride into or around the heart. In other words: an attempt is made to cause the baby to die of cardiac arrest. The reason given in the guidelines for this is to prevent the baby from being born alive.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Just pause for a moment and think about that.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Why is such a procedure necessary according to these guidelines?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Because without foeticide, there is a real possibility that the child will be born alive. That is precisely why the guideline recommends stopping the heartbeat beforehand. We are therefore talking about a situation in which doctors carry out a procedure with the aim of preventing the child from being born alive. To me, that is no mere detail. It says something about the stage of development of the baby.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>Medical procedures are not one hundred per cent predictable. Cases have been reported in which, despite this procedure, a child was still born alive.<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">A recent study<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" id=\"footnote-text\" title=\"Go to the footnote\" href=\"#footnote\"><sup><b>1<\/b><\/sup><\/a> from Qu\u00e9bec, Canada, examined over 13,000 terminations of pregnancy carried out in hospitals between 15 and 29 weeks\u2019 gestation. In total, 1,541 children were born alive following these procedures. That is 11.2 per cent.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">The risk of a live birth was particularly elevated in pregnancies between 20 and 24 weeks.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">The researchers describe how foeticide is used to reduce the likelihood of a live birth. The study found that a foeticide injection reduced the risk of a live birth by approximately 57 per cent. However, this did not completely eliminate the risk.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>How does a healthcare professional deal with such a situation? Someone trained to protect vulnerable life may be confronted with a situation in which the very aim of the treatment was to prevent a live birth.<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And that brings me back to my question.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">How does this affect hospital staff?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">What about the nurse who, on Monday, does everything in her power to keep a 23-week-old baby alive&#8230;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">\u2026and who is later involved in a procedure in which an unborn child at virtually the same stage of pregnancy is deliberately prevented from being born alive.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">That is not a political question. It is a question of conscience. And I sincerely wonder whether we in the Netherlands are taking that question seriously enough.<\/p>\n\n<h3>The missing voice<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">There is someone else who is almost never mentioned in this whole discussion. The child itself.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Everyone seems to have a voice. The mother. The doctors. Politicians. Professional bodies. The media. But the person about whom the decision is ultimately made has no voice at all.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Of course, this is not unusual for an unborn child. A newborn baby, too, cannot defend its own interests. A severely disabled adult or someone in a coma is also dependent on others to speak up for them.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">That is precisely why we bear a great responsibility. The question is not just what we want. The question is also: <b>who will stand up for those who cannot do so themselves?<\/b><\/p>\n\n<h3>The power of language<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">What strikes me is how words influence our thinking.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">We talk about: care, tissue, foetus, termination of pregnancy, procedure.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But if the same pregnancy ends unexpectedly and parents lose their baby\u2026<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">then suddenly we talk about: your son, your daughter, your baby, your little one.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Why does our language change as soon as the outcome changes? Because the child itself hasn\u2019t changed<\/p>\n\n<h3>Where is the line drawn?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">You often hear: \u2018From the point of viability.\u2019<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But why, exactly? Does dependence make someone any less human? A newborn baby cannot survive on its own either. Nor can a severely disabled adult. An intensive care patient is completely dependent on others. Surely their dependence does not make their lives any less valuable?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Why should it be any different for an unborn child?<\/p>\n\n<h3>As a Christian&#8230;<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">Even if you have no connection with the Bible, I hope you\u2019ll be willing to think honestly about these questions. But as a Christian, there\u2019s something else that matters to me. The Bible does not teach that a person\u2019s worth comes from being wanted. Or from being able to live independently. Or from having been born outside the womb.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">The Bible teaches that every human being receives their worth from God. Psalm 139 says that God formed us in our mother\u2019s womb. Jeremiah 1 says that God knew Jeremiah before he was born.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, John the Baptist leapt for joy in Elizabeth\u2019s womb. For God, unborn life is no trivial matter.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Jesus himself does not treat children as an unimportant detail. He says: \u2018Let the children come to me and do not hinder them.\u2019 To Jesus, small and vulnerable people have value.<\/p>\n\n<h3>My outrage<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">And that is why I am outraged. Not because I think women facing an impossible choice need my judgement. On the contrary. They, of all people, deserve love, help, attention and support.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And I\u2019m sure there are many doctors who act out of the conviction that they are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">My outrage is directed at a culture that keeps finding ever-finer words to describe something we are increasingly afraid to name. For language can help us to understand reality, but language can also help us to keep reality at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">For behind words such as \u2018better abortion care\u2019 lies a reality that we must not hide behind medical terms: the life of an unborn child at 22, 23 or 24 weeks is being ended.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">And if we no longer dare to say that out loud\u2026 then we have lost something essential.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Men should not interfere<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">Before I conclude, I would like to address one more frequently heard objection.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">When men speak out about abortion, they are often told: <i>\u2018You\u2019re a man. You can\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be pregnant.\u2019 <\/i>And of course it is true that I will never carry a pregnancy to term. I do not wish to deny that.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But the question is not about how pregnancy feels. The question is: <b>what is the value of the child\u2019s life?<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Both women and men need to reflect on this. Because that child, too, is part of this discussion. As I said, the child has no voice. Are we, as men, not called upon to stand up and protect it?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Precisely because the child has no voice, we as men must not lose our own. In our society, we expect people to stand up for the vulnerable, even if they do not belong to that group themselves.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Nobody says to a man: <i>\u201cYou\u2019re not a child, so don\u2019t get involved in child abuse.\u201d <\/i>Or: <i>\u201cYou\u2019re not a victim of human trafficking, so stay out of it.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">If a man sees an elderly person being abused and simply shrugs his shoulders and walks on by\u2026 What sort of bloke are you then?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">So why should it suddenly be wrong for a man to speak out about the protection of unborn life?<\/p>\n\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">I know this topic stirs up emotions. And perhaps many will disagree with me.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But I\u2019d like to leave you with one question.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">If a wanted baby at 23 weeks were to be born prematurely today\u2026 does he deserve all possible medical care? If your answer to that is \u2018yes\u2019\u2026 what exactly is different about an unwanted baby of the same age who is still in the womb?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">If a wanted baby at 23 weeks were to be born prematurely today, we would call him a patient and do everything we can to save his life. But if the same baby, at the same stage of development and the same age, is still in the womb and is unwanted, we talk about abortion care.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">For me, the answer is clear. Every human life has value. Not because we bestow that value, but because God bestows it. And that is precisely why I believe that unborn life deserves protection.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><br><\/p>\n\n<h3>Footnote<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\"> <a class=\"scroll tooltip\" id=\"footnote\" title=\"Go back to the text\" href=\"#footnote-text\" style=\"font-style: bold; \">1<\/a> https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0002937823008062<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Juli 2026, Gynaecologen pleiten ervoor om abortussen tussen de 22 en 24 weken zwangerschap gemakkelijker in ziekenhuizen uit te voeren. Er wordt gesproken over betere zorg. Over toegankelijkheid. Over een verbetering van de abortuszorg. Wat betekent dit eigenlijk voor artsen, verpleegkundigen en verloskundigen?","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22597,"parent":1147,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,307],"tags":[216,306,344,242,321,240],"folder":[305,102],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22596"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22609,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22596\/revisions\/22609"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22596"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=22596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}