Germany scraps Nazi-era law that barred doctors’ abortion ads

Majority vote ends law banning doctors from offering information about abortion procedures

Philip Oltermann in Berlin
Fri 24 Jun 2022

Germany has abolished a Nazi-era law that criminalises doctors who provide information about abortion procedures.

The governing social democrat, liberal and green parties, as well as the leftwing Die Linke, provided sufficient votes on Friday to scrap paragraph 219a of the German criminal code, which meant any doctor who publicly “offers, announces [or] advertises” abortion services could face penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/24/germany-scraps-nazi-era-abortion-law-that-criminalises-doctors

24.06.2022

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Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker

Kristina Hänel

Lisa Paus

Marco Buschmann

Paragraph 219a German criminal code

Germany one step closer to scrapping Nazi-era abortion law

January 17, 2022

BERLIN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Germany's justice ministry presented a draft law on Monday that would do away with a Nazi-era law forbidding doctors to provide information about abortions.

Doctors in Germany are allowed to say they offer termination of pregnancies but are not allowed to provide any further information on such procedures.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-one-step-closer-scrapping-nazi-era-abortion-law-2022-01-17/

17.01.2022

Paragraph 219a German criminal code

Germany’s new government to nix Nazi-era abortion law

Reuters
Nov 24, 2021

BERLIN — Germany’s new government plans to do away with a Nazi-era law that forbids doctors from providing information about abortions and that has long been criticized for creating hurdles for women seeking to make informed decisions.

“Doctors should be allowed to provide public information about abortions without fear of prosecution,” the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats said in their agreement to form a coalition government on Wednesday.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/germanys-new-government-to-nix-nazi-era-abortion-law

24.11.2021

Slovakia: Attempt to rollback access to abortion must be rejected

November 10, 2021
Amnesty International

Ahead of tomorrow’s expected parliamentary vote on a bill that would severely restrict access to abortion in Slovakia, Rado Sloboda, Director of Amnesty Slovakia said:

“Imposing unjustified and harmful hurdles to getting an abortion would endanger the health and even the lives of women and girls and pregnant people and violates their human rights.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/slovakia-attempt-to-rollback-access-to-abortion-must-be-rejected/

10.11.2021

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Slovakia set to pass law forcing women to view images of embryo or foetus before abortion

Slovakia set to pass law forcing women to view images of embryo or foetus before abortion
The country's parliament will consider the law

Jon Stone, Europe Correspondent
Nov 28, 2019

Slovakian woman seeking an abortion would be forced to view pictures of their embryo or foetus under plans for a new law being considered by the country's parliament.

The draft law, to be voted on on Friday, would also require women to listen to the "foetal heartbeat" where technically possible before they could proceed with a termination.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/slovakia-law-women-embryo-foetus-abortion-images-new-law-a9224976.html

Germany – The Growing Fight Against Nazi-Era Abortion Limits

The Growing Fight Against Nazi-Era Abortion Limits
Her case exposed Germany's abortion laws for a new generation — and she's not stopping there.

By Fiona Zublin
Nov 8 2019

In 2017, Kristina Hänel — a wiry German doctor with kind eyes and a cool outdoorsy aunt vibe — became a cause. She’s a doctor who offers abortion services, and she, as others had been before her, was fined $6,700 (€6,000) for “advertising” the procedure on her website.

What sets her apart is the fight. Her ongoing battle against that fine, expected to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, has sparked a new interest in abortion rights among Germany’s younger generation. Hänel might seem an unlikely ringleader: The 63-year-old grandmother of five, who plays the accordion and rides horses in her spare time, spent her life focused on medicine, not activism. But performing abortions, particularly in modern Germany, is activism — and Hänel is the reason many people now know that.

Continued: https://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/this-sexagenarian-doctor-is-inspiring-germanys-modern-abortion-rights-movement/229052/

German doctor fined for advertising abortion under law that goes back to Hitler’s Reich

German doctor fined for advertising abortion under law that goes back to Hitler’s Reich

Kristina Völk and Peter Conradi, Giessen
July 14 2019
The Sunday Times

Tucked away in a nondescript modern building between a mobile phone shop and a branch of McDonald’s, Kristina Hänel’s surgery seems at first glance typical of countless GP practices across Germany. The plate outside the door gives only her name, followed by “Specialist in general medicine”.

Yet Hänel, 62, from Giessen, a university town north of Frankfurt, is at the forefront of a protracted battle being waged in Germany’s courts, media and parliament to change restrictive abortion laws that date back to the Nazi era.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/german-doctor-fined-for-advertising-abortion-under-law-that-goes-back-to-hitlers-reich-m6kpxc3vv

Explained: Germany’s plans to change controversial abortion laws

Explained: Germany's plans to change controversial abortion laws

Rachel Loxton
30 January 2019

Germany has agreed in principle to easing a Nazi-era law that makes it illegal for doctors to provide information on abortion services. But the move has received mixed reactions. Here’s what you need to know.

Why is abortion in the news? Germany is proposing to soften paragraph 219a which makes it a crime for doctors to ‘advertise’ abortions and share information on terminating unwanted pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.thelocal.de/20190130/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-proposed-changes-to-germanys-abortion-law

Ireland – Abortion services only available on fourth day

Abortion services only available on fourth day

Ellen Coyne
December 18 2018

Women seeking an abortion will have to wait three full days for the procedure, the chief medical officer has clarified. Angry pro-choice TDs said they had been led to believe that women would get an abortion on the third day and not have to wait until the fourth.

Abortion will be legal in Ireland from next month. There was controversy about the enforcment of a three-day waiting period between a doctor agreeing that a woman can have an abortion, and the procedure.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abortion-services-only-available-on-fourth-day-lswr9r8w6

Germany – Online abortion ads: Doctors defend right to inform patients

Online abortion ads: Doctors defend right to inform patients
Two gynecologists in Germany could face jail time for listing abortion as one of the medical services offered at their practice. People outside the court argued that providing information to women shouldn't be a crime.

Date 29.08.2018
Author Rebecca Staudenmaier

Dozens of protesters gathered outside a court in the German city of Kassel on Wednesday as the latest trial concerning Germany's ban on abortion "advertising" began.

Gynecologists Natascha Nicklaus and Nora Szasz face charges of posting on their website that they offer abortions. A list detailing the outpatient surgeries the doctors perform includes the legally contentious entry: "Abortion — surgical or medicinal."

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/online-abortion-ads-doctors-defend-right-to-inform-patients/a-45274952