Abortions: What will become of Section 218?

In the traffic light there are efforts to overturn the ban on abortions – Family Minister Paus also supports this. However, the Green politician does not have all the coalition partners on her side.

Family Minister Lisa Paus is standing at the lectern of the German Bundestag on a hot June day 2022 and is happy. The traffic light coalition will finally abolish paragraph 219a, which prohibits “advertising for the termination of pregnancy”. The paragraph in the penal code has so far ensured that gynecologists are not allowed to advertise that they carry out abortions without having to fear penalties.

The traffic light had already stipulated in the coalition agreement that it wanted to abolish paragraph 219a. And according to the will of the SPD, Greens and FDP, Paragraph 218 of the Criminal Code should also be put to the test. It punishes abortions as a whole: “Anyone who aborts a pregnancy will be punished with imprisonment for up to three years or with a fine,” according to the wording of the law.

The exceptions to this, i.e. impunity, are in paragraph 218a. There is a deadline and consultation regulation – a compromise that was found with difficulty after German unity and a judgment by the Federal Constitutional Court. The regulation means that the abortion must take place up to the 12th week of pregnancy and must be carried out by a doctor. The pregnant woman must also seek advice beforehand in order to remain unpunished.

The next step

With the decision of the Bundestag on paragraph 219a, Paus announced the next step: one must also talk about paragraph 218. That is why the federal government will now set up a commission for this question – because it is clear that this is “still a controversial issue for society”.

The minister received a lot of applause for the announcement from the left, the SPD and the Greens, but nobody applauded the coalition partner FDP. The Liberals can use the Twitter hashtag #wegmit218, which the Minister for Family Affairs also uses, don’t start much.

FDP against deletion of paragraph 218

The legal policy spokeswoman for the FDP, Katrin Helling-Plahr, does not know what will improve if paragraph 218 is deleted. The majority of the FDP still considers the compromise reached almost 30 years ago to be correct.

Instead, the FDP is concerned about the care of unwanted pregnant women, which is sometimes catastrophic. In some regions, women have to travel more than 100 kilometers to have an abortion.

In addition, according to the FDP, doctors should finally learn more about abortions in their training. Up until now, abortion has not been standard practice.

Many implementation options

The slogan #awaywith218 can mean many things: the complete cancellation and thus the release of abortions as well as a change in criminal law. Ulle Schauws, women’s policy spokeswoman for the Greens, believes it is important that it is “no longer about the conviction and the moral authority” that goes hand in hand with anchoring it in the penal code.

With the current regulation, women’s right to self-determination is neglected, says Schauws. She does not want to be more specific so as not to anticipate the Commission.

Union also against an amendment

Like the Liberals, the Union also thinks that the compromise that was found after long struggles after German unity was a good one. The deputy parliamentary group leader of the Union, Dorothee Bär, does not get enough of the rights of the unborn child in the family minister’s plans.

Paus is only concerned with reproductive self-determination and the woman’s right to an abortion, criticizes Bär. The Bavarian state government has already threatened to file a lawsuit in Karlsruhe if paragraph 218 of the penal code is actually abolished.

Commission must make a recommendation

The family minister herself does not want to give any interviews on the subject at the moment. Now the Commission should work first. Its members include medical ethicists, lawyers and doctors. It is not known how long they will be together. For the FDP politician and lawyer Helling-Plahr, the only thing that will not come out of it is as good as certain: There is “no room at all” for the deletion of paragraph 218 without replacement, she says. That’s why she’s not afraid of discussions within the traffic light coalition.

Paus not only needs a clear vote from the commission, but also the coalition partner FDP at her side to abolish the paragraph.