If Verdonk's proposal left you shrugging, look no further than Rotterdam itself for some stronger stuff ...
This is from the Radio Netherlands Press Review (no longer online). Antilleans are immigrants (and their descendants) from the Antilles, the Netherlands' remaining Caribbean colony.
Quote:Rotterdam alderman calls for compulsory abortions
Rotterdam alderman Marianne van den Anker has caused consternation with remarks about compulsory abortion. Speaking in a newspaper interview she proposed introducing compulsory abortion for drug addicts, the mentally handicapped and Antillean teenagers. The alderman, who represents the local party Leefbaar Rotterdam and whose portfolio includes public health, argued this would reduce the chances of the children growing up in a chaotic and abusive environment.
The other two parties on the city council, the Christian Democrats and the conservative VVD, called her remarks "astonishing and unacceptable". The chairman of Ms Van den Anker's own party said he agreed with her but her timing was unfortunate. Local elections are due to take place next month throughout the Netherlands.
Livable Rotterdam is the party that was founded by Pim Fortuyn, and promptly won 17 out of 45 seats in the city council in 2002. It is by far the largest party.
At the time of van den Anker's statements, however, two opinion polls ahead of next month's local elections had shown the party to be dropping to just 9-11 seats, yielding first place to the Labour Party, which was polled to go from 11 to 20-21 seats - strongly thanks to minority voters' support.
In a new opinion poll since then, Livable Rotterdam recovered to 13 seats, showing that calling for obligatory abortions for minority groups doesn't, in any case, electorally hurt in today's Holland*. The small Christian Union, which reacted indignantly to the obligatory abortions proposal, saw its support cut almost in half in the newest poll.
Here's an (unfortunately rather confusingly structured) article about this that is still online:
Quote:Abort 'unloved' Antilleans, says Rotterdam politician
link
My summary:
Quote:2006/02/20 · Expatica
Rotterdam alderman van den Anker of the Liveable Rotterdam (LR) party called for a debate on compulsory abortion and contraception for mothers she believes are responsible for raising unloved babies that fall victim to child abuse.
The target groups she has in mind are Antillean teenage mothers; drug addicts and people with mental handicaps. She said children from these groups run an "unacceptable risk" of growing up with "violence, neglect, mistreatment and sexual abuse." The exceptions, she said, "can be counted on a pair of hands."
The courts should decide whether abortion was the right option, based on what experts and care workers said. She argued that there were a lot of Antillean youth gangs whose members come from loveless homes. LR's coalition partners, the Christian Democrat CDA and Liberal VVD, vehemently rejected her suggestions.
*Wholly off-topic: the populist-rightwing Livable Rotterdam in fact increased its score from 9 seats in the 31 January poll to 13 in the 21 February poll; ie, it recovered from 19% to 26% of the vote. What is striking is that no single other party has suffered in particular from this, they just all lost ground slightly. With one exception: the far-left Socialist Party, which dropped from 11% to 7% in the polls. I've always suspected that, at least where it concerns the electorate, politics is not a line between left and right, but rather a circle, in which the far-left and the far-right compete for the same voters.
