Repeal of Section 219a: Away from taboo

The planned repeal of paragraph 219a does not solve the medical care problem with abortions. But it is a start to stop making the subject taboo.

“We have to adapt the law of the present,” says the justice minister today. As a woman and as a mother, I say: that’s right, finally. You have to think about it again: In a society in which there is actually an abundance of information, there has been an information deficit in the area of ​​abortion up to now.

With such an important decision, pregnant women could not find out from doctors online what the abortion looks like, what side effects there are, what the legal framework is. Doctors are otherwise liable to prosecution. Is this what an enlightened society looks like?

Humiliating and degrading

The current situation is humiliating and degrading for women who are already in an exceptional mental and physical situation. Those who now fear that women might decide to have an abortion simply because there is “advertising” online about it should be told: no woman just terminates a pregnancy just like that. There are a variety of feelings and thoughts that drive them.

And the women are often all alone, sometimes having to drive hundreds of kilometers to get an abortion. Also because there are fewer and fewer gynecologists in Germany who perform abortions.

Doctors are stigmatized, they are afraid of hate speech and threats. It has come to this. The repeal of paragraph 219a does not solve the medical supply problem. But it would be a start. A start to stop making the subject taboo.