Lessons from the Netherlands: Reflections on Low Abortion Rates and Reproductive Education

Growing up in a Dutch immigrant household, I noticed early on that something about my parents’ approach to life and family planning was very different from what I saw around me in North America. In small towns in Alberta, for example, sex education is minimal at best, birth control is barely taught, and young women are often expected to practice celibacy. The message is clear: sex is taboo, and any deviation from these norms is framed as moral failure. I came to realize how harmful this puritanical approach can be, especially to young women, by creating shame, secrecy, and risk.

Contrast this with the Dutch approach, which has its roots in the 1880s when the Netherlands largely........

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