Family planning and contraception
Contraception
Every woman or girl in Belgium has the right to use contraception. Girls under the age of 18 do not have to inform their parents if they use the contraceptive pill or another method of contraception.
The doctor who prescribes contraception is obliged by law to respect the privacy of his/her patient. He/she is not allowed to give information to other people about the use of contraception by her/her patient, even if the patient is under 18 years of age.
Via the procedure for urgent medical care, a doctor can prescribe contraception such as the contraceptive pill or the IUD to women without legal residence status.
Pregnancy and delivery
Every pregnant woman has the right to professional care before, during and after delivery. Some of these services are free of charge.
Women without legal residence status have access to this care via the procedure for urgent medical care.
Being pregnant does not automatically entitle someone to legal residence. It is, however, possible to get a “temporary postponement of departure”. Normally, a pregnant mother has the right to stay in the country from 2 months before until 2 months after delivery. In most cases, migration services will not expel a woman after 24 weeks of pregnancy and they will never expel her after 36 weeks (which is 2 weeks before the average delivery date).
The baby always gets the residence status of the parent with the most favourable status. If the father is Belgian the baby gets Belgian citizenship, provided that the father recognizes the child.
A mother who gives birth to a Belgian child does not automatically get legal residence. She can apply for regularization of her status through the family reunification procedure. If the father recognizes the child, he can apply for regularization of his residence status through the same procedure.