It's 2025 and we're still debating whether women should be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies. The cardinal, politicians, journalists - everyone is joining the conversation, but hardly anyone has a uterus. Luxembourg has the chance to secure the right to abortion in Luxembourg - now or never.
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When my mum was about 20 years old, she accompanied one of her best friends to the Netherlands. For many women at the time, the Netherlands was one of the few places where a safe abortion was possible under acceptable conditions if Luxembourg's legal requirements could not be met and the woman was not "in an emergency situation" according to the doctors. The atmosphere, my mum told me, was terrible, the rooms spartan and cold, her friend's psyche at rock bottom. She told me this story early on – and it left a lasting impression on me as a teenager. I remember thinking at the time: "How good that this no longer has to be the case. That we have the opportunity to have abortions in Luxembourg under dignified conditions."
Today, 40 years later, I can hardly believe that we still have to have this debate in 2025. There are plenty of arguments and facts – and yet there is still a serious debate about whether a woman should be allowed to make decisions about her own body.
At the age of 16, most girls go to the gynaecologist and get prescribed the pill. From then on, they are responsible for contraception on a daily basis. If they forget, they panic, get the morning-after pill or worry every month until they are safe again. This constant reminder of their own responsibility shows how absurd it is to debate the right to abortion as if it were a theoretical principle.
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