Goethe immortalised the shaming of German women 200 years ago – we’re still at it

Abortion is criminalised and stigmatised – and now the right has found a new female scapegoat in its US-style war on bodily autonomy

Fatma Aydemir
Sat 19 Jul 2025

Every nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe’s play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is not the protagonist, but his “love interest”, Gretchen – a teenage girl groomed by the old man, impregnated and socially ostracised. Her solution? She drowns her “illegitimate” newborn child, accepts her death penalty and rejects Faust’s offer to save her from prison. In God’s mercy, the Christian girl seeks salvation and off goes Faust with the devil to new adventures in Faust, Part Two.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/jul/19/germany-goethe-shaming-women-abortion

19.07.2025

Opinion

abortion stigma

Alice Weidel

Alternative for Germany

Fatma Aydemir

Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf

Germany – Merz’s coalition plunged into crisis over deadlock on top court judge

An impassioned debate involving abortion and a plagiarism allegation underscores the German coalition’s relative fragility.

July 11, 2025
By Nette Nöstlinger and Rasmus Buchsteiner

BERLIN — A highly emotional clash over the appointment of a judge to Germany's top court has exposed widening fissures inside conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz's young coalition government.

The spat, involving a questionable plagiarism allegation and a passionate debate on abortion, threatens to undermine Merz's centrist coalition just two months after the chancellor took office.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/merz-coalition-crisis-deadlock-top-court-judge-brosius-gersdorf-weise/

12.07.2025

News

Alternative for Germany

Dirk Wiese

Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf

German campaigners demand abortion be fully legalized

Femke COLBORNE
Dec 7, 2024

German campaigners are pushing for reform to remove legal hurdles for women seeking an abortion, with emotions running high on the issue as the country heads for early elections.

Under German law, abortion is illegal but tolerated in practice for women who are up to 12 weeks pregnant. However, a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy must first receive compulsory counselling, followed by a three-day waiting period and many doctors say the process can be complicated as well as traumatic.

Continued: https://www.citizentribune.com/news/national/german-campaigners-demand-abortion-be-fully-legalised/article_6d07dcde-c96d-51b3-bd5a-16aec48b1e65.html

Abortion in Germany: Preelection push for liberalization

A left-wing cross-party initiative in Germany has been launched to decriminalize abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Polls show public support, but conservative lawmakers are opposed.

Julie Gregson
Dec 2, 2024

Lawmakers from Germany's center-left parties want to make abortion legal in Germany — in the first three months of pregnancy.

Germany's paragraph 218 outlawing abortions first entered the statute books in 1871 and has long been controversial. While abortion remains illegal, women since the 1990s have been permitted to have them within the first three months of pregnancy without risk of prosecution if they undergo counseling at least three days before the procedure. Terminations in the case of rape or when the woman's mental or physical health is at risk are also exempt from punishment.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/abortion-in-germany-preelection-push-for-liberalization/a-70922840

Abortion rights at issue in European elections

Abortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we have not seen before.

MAGDALENA FRENNHOFF LARSÉN
15th March 2024

The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law—the so-called Veil law—was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s-rights movement.

In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by the French president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous speech. She presented the public-health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men.

Continued: https://www.socialeurope.eu/abortion-rights-at-issue-in-european-elections

15.03.2024

Commentary

Alternative for Germany

Emmanuel Macron

European parliamentEuropean parliament

European People’s Party

European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights

Abortion rights are featuring in this year’s European election campaign in a way we’ve not seen before

March 13, 2024
Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén

The recent landmark decision in France to inscribe the right to abortion in the constitution serves to protect the law that first legalised abortion in the country in 1975. This law – the so-called Veil law – was championed by Simone Veil, one of France’s most admired and respected political figures, and an icon of the women’s rights movement.

In 1974, Veil, a magistrate who had been asked by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to serve as health minister in his government, delivered a momentous speech. She presented the public health case for the decriminalisation of abortion to the National Assembly, which at the time was composed almost entirely of men.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-rights-are-featuring-in-this-years-european-election-campaign-in-a-way-weve-not-seen-before-225714

13.03.2024

Commentary

abortion law reform

Alternative for Germany

Emmanuel Macron

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Simone Veil

Simone Veil Pact

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

Europe’s growing abortion nightmare

Even in the absence of a ban, for women in need of abortion access, the overall picture is grim — and the worst is yet to come.

JULY 1, 2023
Reporting for this article was carried out by Akmaljon Akhmedjonov, Bernadeta Barokova, Yijing Chen, Pius Fozan, Timotheus Paul Goldinger, Kristina Kovalska, Leila Lawrence, Hanna Perenyi, Carina Samhaber, Stephanie Songer, Marziyeh Taeb, Tripti and Joseph Scioli, masters and PhD students at the Central European University in Vienna, under the editorship of Professor Marius Dragomir.

When she was 19 years old, Anna Peer had an abortion after her intrauterine device malfunctioned. “I didn’t realize at the time how lucky and privileged I was,” said Peer, now 24. “My gynecologist basically carried me through everything.”

But through her work for the Austrian Family Planning Association (ÖGF), an NGO that provides counseling related to reproductive health, Peer now sees “what the system’s actually like.”

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-growing-abortion-nightmare/

01.07.2023

Commentary

Aleksander Stępkowski

Alternative for Germany

Anna Peer

Austrian Family Planning Association

Austrian Life Movement

Brad Hayes

Changes for Women

Charter of Fundamental Rights

Ciocia Wienia

Claire Provost

conscientious objectors

Contraceptive and Sexual Education Society

cost of abortion

criminalization of abortion

Dr. Cemil Yaman

Elke Graf

European Court of Human Rights

European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Freedom Party of Austria

pro:woman ambulatorium

Poland’s abortion ruling focus of debate in EU parliament

by VANESSA GERA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted Feb 9, 2021

WARSAW, Poland — Most European Parliament lawmakers on Tuesday lashed out at Poland’s near-total abortion ban Tuesday, with several lawmakers arguing it was a fundamental violation of women’s rights.

Even though some praised authorities in Warsaw for what they called a defence of Christian values and human life, many in the major political groups were critical of the measure in the staunchly Roman Catholic nation.

Continued: https://www.news957.com/2021/02/09/polands-abortion-ruling-focus-of-debate-in-eu-parliament/

09.02.2021

Alternative for Germany

Law and Justice party

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

The Renaissance of Germany’s Abortion Rights Movement

The Renaissance of Germany’s Abortion Rights Movement

By Kathleen Brown
March 15, 2018

As Germany’s natalist far right rises, a growing progressive movement is challenging the country’s Nazi-era abortion laws.

In November 2017, German doctor Kristina Hänel was found guilty of breaking Paragraph 219a of the German Criminal Code and fined €6,000 by the Gießen District Court. Her crime? Listing abortion as a medical service on her practice’s website.

Dr. Hänel was charged under Nazi-era Paragraph 219a, which criminalizes advertising abortion services. The offense is punishable with up to two years in prison for anyone who publicly “offers, announces or recommends services for pregnancy termination.” In court, Hänel’s defense lawyer argued that her website remains informational and does not meet the definition of advertising. Nonetheless, the Gießen judge found Dr. Hänel guilty, justifying the ruling, “Lawmakers do not want to discuss abortion in public as if it were a normal thing.” Except, as Dr. Hänel and many women know, abortion is a normal thing. Over 100,000 individuals in Germany choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies each year.

Continued: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/germanys-abortion-rights-movement-afd-fascism