Status: 11/27/2021 6:29 p.m.
If doctors publicly inform about abortions, this has so far been a criminal offense. The traffic light parties now want to abolish the corresponding paragraph 219a. But this does not solve the main problem.
Until now, it has often been difficult for anyone who accidentally becomes pregnant and wants to find out who can help them. Because so far, doctors have not been allowed to provide public information about an abortion – this is regulated by Paragraph 219a.
Fewer and fewer gynecologists have recently carried out abortions. Since a reform of the paragraph, they are now at least allowed to write if they are ready. But more is not allowed to be there – at least so far. Because the SPD, Greens and FDP have decided to completely abolish the abortion paragraph 219a.
Women will soon be able to obtain better information
A woman from Gießen is particularly happy about it: the gynecologist Kristina Hänel. She had campaigned for the paragraph to be deleted and was fined for posting information about abortions on her practice’s website. Anti-abortion opponents had repeatedly attacked and reported them. Now she has won her fight.
With the planned deletion of the entire paragraph, Hänel can make all information publicly available to the women concerned. She is relieved that “this humiliation and this degradation and this painful desire to misunderstand women – that a stop is now being put in place.” She is glad that a government is taking sides for those seeking protection and anti-abortion “not spreading the red carpet,” said Hänel.
Women may soon be able to obtain better information about the possible methods, side effects and the legal situation.
Change in the law should come quickly
Ulle Schauws from the Greens helped negotiate the deletion of paragraph 219a. She promises the change in the law will come as soon as possible – within the first 100 days of the new federal government. “I was very relieved that we were pretty much in agreement on this point and that the coalition agreement now also says: Paragraph 219 a will be deleted without replacement.”
Union politicians, on the other hand, are appalled. Alexander Dobrindt from the CSU thinks that the coalition agreement shows “that a new social image of the protection of life is clearly written down in this paper. One can be very worried about what that means for the future.”
Less pressure on pregnant women and doctors
According to the Green politician Schauws, the abolition means that pressure is taken off the women and doctors concerned. That women are granted their right to information. She cannot understand the idea that advertising posters or flyers for abortion will follow.
“It’s a construction. I can’t imagine a doctor like Kristina Hänel or other doctors going over and saying: Come here, I can get abortions cheaper,” said Schauws. “It’s rubbish and not realistic, and also not appropriate to the reality of those who are unwantedly pregnant.”
Abortion remains difficult
However, the Doctors for Choice association criticizes the fact that paragraph 218 – which makes abortion a punishable offense – continues to exist. Women still have to seek advice from a pregnancy conflict counseling center and can only have an abortion in the first twelve weeks. Unless they were raped or there is a medical reason.
The main problem for many women remains that they cannot find a doctor to perform the procedure. That does not solve the abolition of paragraph 219a. Finding a doctor might be easier. This does not improve the supply situation. But that’s a big issue, says Schauws from the Greens.
What does the coalition agreement mean for unwanted pregnant women?
Isabel Reifenrath, ARD Berlin, 11/27/2021 5:35 p.m.