Germans can advert abortion now

Until today, paragraph 219a regulated a ban on advertising for abortions. At the same time, however, it also meant that doctors could not publicly offer detailed information about abortions without fear of prosecution.

The coalition factions of SPD, Greens and FDP, and the Left faction voted for the deletion of criminal law paragraph 219a. The Christian Democratic Union and the right-wing AfD voted against it.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann from the Liberal FDP called the abolition overdue. "It's high time," said Buschmann in the final debate in the Bundestag. Every conviction under criminal law paragraph 219a is "one conviction too many". This reports the German Broadcaster Tagesschau.

Buschmann further stated that when a woman deals with the difficult question of a possible termination of pregnancy, she "usually" first looks for information on the internet these days. There, "every troll and every conspiracy theorist" can spread things on the subject - highly qualified doctors, however, are forbidden. "It's absurd, out of date, it's unfair, and that's why we're ending this situation."

Unborn

CDU and AfD expressed outrage at the abolition of the law. MPs from both parliamentary groups have repeatedly emphasised that women can already obtain detailed information about abortions and that the rights of unborn life should not be neglected.

The traffic light coalition is primarily concerned with "producing a sense of achievement together" for reasons of "group dynamics," said the chairwoman of the legal committee, Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU) during the Bundestag session. This reports German magazine Der Spiegel.

The deletion of 219a enables "proactive advertising on the Internet," warned the CDU politician. This suggests that abortion "is about normal medical treatment," which is not the case.

The law still has to be formally passed by the Bundesrat, but it can come into force without the consent of the Länderkammer.