Promotion of abortion services by doctors legalised in Germany

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Section 219a of the Criminal Code has long been controversial.  A majority of the members of the Bundestag have now decided to end the ban on the promotion of abortions.  Criticism has come from the CDU/CSU and the AfD.

In future, doctors in Germany will be allowed to provide information if they offer abortions.  The Bundestag has passed the bill to abolish the long-controversial Paragraph 219a.  This is one of the first socio-political projects of the coalition government - the Cabinet approved the draft law in March.

Up to now, the paragraph has regulated the ban on promoting abortions.  Among other things, this means that doctors cannot offer detailed information about such procedures to the public without fear of prosecution.  It is enough for a conviction if a doctor not only states on their homepage that they perform abortions but also with which procedure.

Federal Minister for Women's Affairs, Lisa Paus (Greens) said that today was "a great day for doctors, but above all for all women in this country".  Paragraph 219a had never been about promotion.  Rather, unintentionally pregnant women sought advice, and doctors wanted to educate, but could not do so as they wished.  The abolition "finally ends decades of stigmatisation and criminalisation of doctors", said Paus.

Lisa Paus, Ready Because you are.

Bushman defends abolition

Federal Justice Minister, Marco Buschmann (FDP) had called the abolition overdue in the run-up to the change. "It is high time," Buschmann said in the final debate in the Bundestag.  Every conviction under the criminal law using Paragraph 219a was "one conviction too many".

Nowadays, when a woman deals with the difficult question of a possible abortion, she "as a rule" first looks for information on the internet, stated Buschmann.  There, "every troll and every conspiracy theorist" can spread things on the subject - highly qualified doctors, on the other hand, are forbidden from doing so. "This is absurd, this is anachronistic, this is unfair and that is why we are ending this state of affairs."

Buschmann rejected concerns that the deletion of Section 219a would touch on the protection of unborn life.  This protection, he said, was enshrined in the Criminal law, Section 218 - the two sections had to be "strictly distinguished".

There will continue to be no "commercialising and trivialising promotion" for abortions, the Minister of Justice emphasised.  This is opposed by the medical profession's legislation.  "It is time for more trust in doctors and it is time for more freedom of information for women," Buschmann summed up.

Union opposes abolition of Paragraph 219a

The CDU/CSU and the AfD expressed their outrage at the abolition of the paragraph.  Members of both parties emphasised again and again that women could already inform themselves in detail about abortions and that the rights of the unborn should not be neglected.

The main concern of the traffic light coalition is to "produce a sense of achievement together" for reasons of "group dynamics", said Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU), chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee, during the Bundestag session.

It is true that everyone can understand the difficult situation of an unintentionally pregnant woman. "But we also think of the child's right to life - and that is the main difference I see between us," Winkelmeier-Becker said, addressing the various political factions that make up the German coalition government.  The CDU/CSU therefore wanted to stick to the current regulation.

Law on the advertising of medicines should prevent objectionable advertising

The deletion of Paragraph 219a would allow "proactive advertising on the internet", the CDU politician warned. This would suggest that an abortion "is a normal medical treatment", which is not the case.  Both the CDU and the AfD had announced in the run-up to the vote that they would submit their own motions.

In order to ensure that "offensive" and inappropriate advertising for abortions remains prohibited in the future, the approved government bill provides for an extension of the so-called Law on the Advertising of Medicinal Products). Thus, abortions without reference to a disease would also be covered by the law, which so far regulates misleading advertising of medical products in other areas.

The law still has to formally pass the Bundesrat but it can enter into force without the approval of the regional parliaments.