Marlies Schellekens, MD

Dr. Schellekens, 1955, has been a general practitioner in a rural community in the Netherlands for over 25 years. Since 1982, she has been working in a sexual and reproductive health clinic in the province Zeeland, south of the Netherlands, as expert in family planning and sexology and as abortion provider. In 2011, she left her GP practice to have more time for her favorite topic: family planning and abortion worldwide. Dr. Schellekens believes that as long as women do not have the right to choose the number of children they want to have, they cannot make free choices for themselves, their family, nor their children. In this world, children should have the right to be wanted. This is why she chose to support and work for Women on Waves, and for Women on Web, as medical supervisor of the international helpdesk. During the years she has been supporting and training women and organizations in many parts of the world, and she participated in the activism of Women on Waves, especially in Morocco, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Southern Turkey near the Syrian border, DRC, Bangladesh, amongst others.