Christian Democrats Germany present alternative for deletion ban abortion ads

The motion is named “Strengthening the interests of women, maintaining the protection of the unborn child.” It aims to relax the 219th article of the criminal code, instead of deleting it altogether, Die Tagespost reports. Article 219 criminalises the publication of any information about abortion—Doctors who put information about abortion on their website risk criminal prosecution.

The federal coalition already passed the proposal to remove the article from the criminal code. However, it still needs to be discussed by the Bundesrat and parliamentary groups of the coalition in the Bundestag.

The alternative of the Christian Democrats proposes to allow doctors, hospitals and other facilities to publish “non-judgmental information on the methods they use to carry out an abortion” on their websites. In addition, these actors should be able to provide addresses of facilities to pregnant women on request, Die Tagespost writes.

The Christian Democrats, furthermore, write in their proposal that the government should ensure that all women “can find both counselling centres and doctors willing to carry out abortions.” They also request that costs of “medically prescribed” contraceptives be covered by insurances up to the age of 25.

Yet, the party warns that banalisation of abortion is “ethically unacceptable” and that it is “wrong” to ignore the unborn child in the current debate.”