The controversial paragraph 219a of the German Penal Code prohibited “advertising” for voluntary termination of pregnancy.
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While the right to abortion has just experienced an unprecedented setback in the United States, it is progressing in Germany. The German Parliament repealed, Friday, June 25, a law dating back to the Nazi period which limited information on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG). The controversial paragraph 219a of the Penal Code, adopted in 1933 shortly after Adolf Hitler assumed full powers, prohibited the “advertising” for abortion.
Doctors detailing which abortion methods they used risked “up to two years imprisonment or a fine”. The governing coalition parties, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP), voted to scrap the ban, while the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the far right (AfD) voted against.
The Green Minister for Women’s Rights, Lisa Paus, welcomed “a huge day for doctors, but especially for all women in this country”. Liberal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann had judged “absurd” and “from another time” that “all the trolls and conspirators” can express themselves on the subject of abortion but that doctors do not have the right to inform the public correctly.
The law passed on Friday will also cancel the fines imposed in recent years on doctors who provided information online on the subject.
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