Paragraph 219a of the Criminal Code
Bundestag overturns advertising ban on abortions
© Sachelle Babbar / ZUMA Wire / imago images
Now the time has finally come: The Bundestag overturns the advertising ban for abortions. Paragraph 219a has long been controversial and the traffic light coalition had already announced at the beginning of the legislative period that it would delete the paragraph.
The Bundestag has now passed the draft law to abolish paragraph 219a. The traffic light coalition has thus completed the first socio-political project and fulfilled a small part of the coalition agreement.
For a long time, paragraph 219a prohibited doctors from informing and educating their patients about a possible abortion. The ban on advertising abortions meant that doctors could not provide detailed information publicly without being prosecuted. It was enough for a conviction if a doctor not only stated on the homepage that she performs abortions, but also with which procedures.
Paragraph 219a: The years of stigmatization of doctors have come to an end
Federal Women’s Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) said today was “a great day for doctors, but above all for all women in this country”. The name of the paragraph is also rather misleading, because no doctor was ever aiming at advertising, but only at giving advice to unintentionally pregnant women. With the abolition, decades of stigmatization and criminalization of doctors will finally end, Paus added.
Union and AfD, on the other hand, were outraged. They repeatedly emphasized that women can already obtain detailed information about abortions and that the rights of unborn life should not be neglected, according to the “Spiegel”. The chairwoman of the legal committee, Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU), even accused the traffic light coalition of only making this decision in order to “produce a sense of achievement together” and for reasons of “group dynamics”. The politician warned that the abolition of the paragraph would be too “proactive[r] Advertising on the Internet” could lead and that abortions “are about completely normal medical treatment”.
A ban on misleading advertising will continue to exist
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) emphasized that there will still be no “commercializing and trivializing advertising” for abortions. It should only be possible for women to independently inform themselves about abortions on the websites of gynecologists. According to Buschmann, the Internet is the first place people look for information. There “every troll and every conspiracy theorist” can spread things on this topic – highly qualified doctors, on the other hand, are forbidden to do so. That was absurd and out of date.
However, to ensure that inappropriate advertising clips do not occur in the first place, the so-called Medicines Advertising Act is to be expanded. So it will continue to be forbidden to broadcast misleading advertising about abortions.
The law still has to be formally passed by the Bundesrat, but it can come into force without the consent of the Länderkammer.
Sources used: spiegel.de, tagesschau.de, zeit.de