LETTER FROM BERLIN
Abortion remains a very political subject in Germany. A recent decision by the government testifies to this: the repeal of paragraph 219a of the penal code. According to this article, “any person who, in public or by his writings (…)offers or promotes its services or those of a third party to perform or encourage an abortion (…) shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for up to two years or by a fine”.
Adopted on March 9 by the Council of Ministers, the day after International Women’s Rights Day, the repeal of paragraph 219a was expected. It appears in the “coalition contract” signed in November 2021 by the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP), and is part – with the legalization of cannabis, the lowering of the electoral majority at 16 or the fight against discrimination against transgender people – some societal promises supposed to give substance to the slogan of the new German government: “Dare more progress” (“Mehr Fortschritt wagen”).
Added to the penal code in May 1933, four months after Hitler came to power, paragraph 219a returned to the news in November 2017, when the court in Giessen (Hesse) sentenced Kristina Hänel, a general practitioner , to a fine of 6,000 euros for having indicated on the website of her firm that she was carrying out voluntary terminations of pregnancy (IVG).
The opposition of the CDU-CSU
At the time, the case caused a stir. A petition calling for the repeal of paragraph 219a had collected more than 150,000 signatures and deputies, from the SPD, the Greens, the FDP and the left-wing party Die Linke, had tabled a bill to this effect. But at the time, they clashed with the conservatives (CDU-CSU), then in the majority in the Bundestag, resolutely opposed to the deletion of the controversial article, in the name of defending the “right to life”.
However, the battle continued. Failing to be able to muster a majority to repeal paragraph 219a, the Social Democrats, then allied with the Conservatives in the last “grand coalition” of Angela Merkel (CDU), at least obtained its amendment. At the end of a standoff of several months, a compromise was found: from now on, doctors performing abortions were authorized to let it be known, but they could not say more and, for any more precise information, could at most mention a list of links to other “authorized” sites.
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