As a dual US-NL citizen living in The Netherlands, I would like to point out that the anti-abortion/anti-civil rights agenda is alive and well here, despite the self-trumpeted reputation of the Dutch as being tolerant and supportive of human rights.
For years the Dutch government has moved independent services for women under the grip of government control, then cut back the funding. So that now, any hrlp an abused woman might seek necesaarily goes through a network that effectively puts a woman's situation and narrative under the control of the government. See where this leads? If an abuser has contacts in the right places, the victim can pretty much go whistle Dixie. She might be told, by a *specialist in domestic abuse care* that she "must put it behind" her, even if the abuse is still affecting her life. Erasing a woman's knowledge of her own truth and dis misding her right to speak of it, is how women will lose every singld right to se lf agency and determination.
I don't say there aren't decent compassionate people in NL, but the fact is that country re-elected a party (VVD) that covered up horrific civil and human rights abuses (see Amnesty International's report on the racist algorithms employed by the Dutch Tax Office https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/xenophobic-machines-dutch-child-benefit-scandal/) that resulted in over a thousand children being forcibly removed from their parents' care, due to falsified charges of fraud by the Tax Office that targeted persons with a non-Dutch ethnic background. Many of those children are *still in foster care*- (the organisation campaigning for unborn children is not sending out adverts about that!), and the families ruined by this abuse are still pressing for agreed compensation and corrective measures to be fulfilled.
I will continue to provide some insight on the situation here as circumstances evolve. Or, as I get more pissed off, i guess i'll start up a substack page of my own, so as not to clog up JV's. 🙄
My God thank you for this. My 14 year old will get a better handle on this today because of your post. Also - plugging donating to volunteering for abortion access funds in your state. And if you are in a blue state talk to the national orgs to see where the funds should go. I am a recurring donor here in Arkansas, and as much as I want to run away, the women and kids here need us so much.
As a dual US-NL citizen living in The Netherlands, I would like to point out that the anti-abortion/anti-civil rights agenda is alive and well here, despite the self-trumpeted reputation of the Dutch as being tolerant and supportive of human rights.
Last November, an anti-abortion advertising campaign, 'The Week of the Unborn Child' ran guilt-inducing spots thst drew a record number of complaints to the national advertising standards body, Ster. ( https://www.nporadio1.nl/nieuws/binnenland/c9ca2743-5c6a-4b9a-b3b2-10b345cc11e9/recordaantal-klachten-over-anti-abortusreclame-het-is-heel-erg-op-schuldgevoel sorry, not in English but there is a clip of the advert if you know a dutch/flemish speaker; or it might be useful to save.) The *complaints were so numerous that Ster stopped accepting them*.
For years the Dutch government has moved independent services for women under the grip of government control, then cut back the funding. So that now, any hrlp an abused woman might seek necesaarily goes through a network that effectively puts a woman's situation and narrative under the control of the government. See where this leads? If an abuser has contacts in the right places, the victim can pretty much go whistle Dixie. She might be told, by a *specialist in domestic abuse care* that she "must put it behind" her, even if the abuse is still affecting her life. Erasing a woman's knowledge of her own truth and dis misding her right to speak of it, is how women will lose every singld right to se lf agency and determination.
I don't say there aren't decent compassionate people in NL, but the fact is that country re-elected a party (VVD) that covered up horrific civil and human rights abuses (see Amnesty International's report on the racist algorithms employed by the Dutch Tax Office https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/xenophobic-machines-dutch-child-benefit-scandal/) that resulted in over a thousand children being forcibly removed from their parents' care, due to falsified charges of fraud by the Tax Office that targeted persons with a non-Dutch ethnic background. Many of those children are *still in foster care*- (the organisation campaigning for unborn children is not sending out adverts about that!), and the families ruined by this abuse are still pressing for agreed compensation and corrective measures to be fulfilled.
I will continue to provide some insight on the situation here as circumstances evolve. Or, as I get more pissed off, i guess i'll start up a substack page of my own, so as not to clog up JV's. 🙄
My God thank you for this. My 14 year old will get a better handle on this today because of your post. Also - plugging donating to volunteering for abortion access funds in your state. And if you are in a blue state talk to the national orgs to see where the funds should go. I am a recurring donor here in Arkansas, and as much as I want to run away, the women and kids here need us so much.
Heartbreaking. We we’re getting too close to real independence and men decided that had to end.
Amen.