Criminal law regulates the question of how to reconcile the protection of unborn life with the woman’s right to self-determination. Is it time to scrap Section 218?
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Wolfgang Janisch, Karlsruhe
Contrasts improve visibility because they emphasize contours. The US Supreme Court’s decidedly anti-modern abortion ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case could be such a contrast medium. The highest US judges want to start a journey through time, back to patriarchal epochs in which male-dominated politics also determined women’s bodies. One of the judges immediately held out the prospect of further retro projects, such as the right to contraception and same-sex marriages. How does German abortion law look against the background of this dark foil? Is there really a bright liberal contrast?