The traffic light coalition considers the deletion of paragraph 219a to be a step that is overdue. She also wants to set up a commission to advise on the impunity of abortions. Resistance comes from the parliamentary groups of the CDU/CSU and AfD.
Women’s rights organizations have long been demanding the abolition of paragraph 219a.
The traffic light coalition has implemented a central family policy promise. The SPD, FDP and Greens, together with the left-wing faction, voted to delete Paragraph 2019a, which criminalizes advertising for abortions. Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann made it clear on Friday in the Bundestag that doctors can now provide factual information about abortions on the Internet. This will end an untenable legal situation. The factions of the CDU and CSU as well as the AfD voted against the project. Doctors and representatives of welfare organizations who offer counseling for women who have had an unwanted pregnancy were also present in the spectator stand in the Bundestag. They welcomed the abolition of the paragraph that had been in the penal code since 1933.
In the heated debate, MEPs stated that there was already a wide range of information about abortions. The deletion of paragraph 219a will enable proactive advertising on the Internet and in magazines, said CDU MP Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker. “That suggests that it’s about normal medical treatment by doctors.” She also saw the right to mandatory protection of the child as not guaranteed. In addition, paragraph 219a prevents the commercialization of abortions.
Government wants to discuss legalizing abortion
The traffic light coalition had agreed in its coalition agreement to delete paragraph 219a. However, it is only the first step. She wants to convene a commission to deal with the even more fundamental question of how abortions can also be regulated outside of criminal law – i.e. legalized.
“Finally, women can be given expert advice,” said Family Minister Lisa Paus in the Bundestag. This will end decades of stigmatization and criminalization of doctors. “With paragraph 219a, a deeply human event is punished inhumanely,” said the Green politician. She announced that a commission would soon be set up to discuss Section 218. Paus also campaigned for the medical and medicinal abortion of a pregnancy to be part of medical studies.
The left faction has long been demanding the abolition of paragraph 219a and the legalization of abortions. “An abortion at the request of the pregnant woman is not a crime,” emphasized the women’s spokeswoman for the left-wing faction, Heidi Reichinnek. With the abolition of the advertising ban for abortions, the “harassment of doctors and the incapacitation of women” is over, she said.
Hundreds of doctors who have performed abortions in their offices have received complaints from anti-abortion advocates in the past. The Giessen doctor Kristina Hänel was convicted in 2017 on the basis of paragraph 219a. On the website of her practice, she had informed that and how she carries out abortions. Her case made national headlines. Hänel had filed a constitutional complaint, and her case has been with the Federal Constitutional Court since last year. Due to the now decided elimination of paragraph 219a, the cause of action also falls away.