"I knew about illegal abortions at asylum centre"
The former emancipation secretary Miet Smet has intimated that she knew that in the Eighties the doctor of the Klein Kasteeltje/Petit Chateau asylum centre in Brussels was carrying out abortions even though they were illegal at this date.
In her memoirs Ms Smet, a Flemish Christian democrat politician, reveals that the doctor told her that she was carrying out abortions. Ms Smet responded by saying: "Go ahead!"
She told VRT: "Abortion was illegal, but in the Klein Kasteeltje there were so many single men and women in our country and having sex. Some women became pregnant. I saw that these people had no future in our country and didn't know what to do about their pregnancy."
In the vote on the legalisation of abortion Ms Smet and her fellow Christian democrats voted against, but she's glad the prime minister didn't pull the party out of the government and bring it down. Ms Smet has no qualms about revealing what happened as abortion is perfectly legal today.