The far-right Vlaams Belang (VB) party is seeking to allow late-term pregnant women to park in handicapped spaces after it introduced a bill to the Chamber on Thursday.
The VB's member of parliament Nathalie Dewulf said the bill would allow pregnant women to enjoy some "parking comfort" during the final weeks of their pregnancy as they carried out errands such as shopping, taking children to school or driving to the doctor.
Dewulf said that the measure could be justified because women in late-term pregnancies are often "in physical discomfort," according to HLN.
"Having a basket full of groceries or a toddler on your arm and still having to walk 100 meters between parking and the destination is often impossible and especially undesirable," Dewulf said. "Hence our proposal, which of course is not intended to disadvantage the disabled, but to help pregnant women."
In order to avoid a shortage of parking spaces, the bill also proposes that more handicapped parking spots are created.
The measure would benefit women already on mandatory prenatal leave, which happens six weeks before birth for a single pregnancy and eight weeks for a multiple pregnancy.
The far-right party had already introduced a similar bill to the lower house of the Federal Parliament in 2015, but it was not voted on at the time.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
