Abortion in Germany

Last updated

Abortion in Germany is illegal, but nonpunishable during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy upon condition of mandatory counseling. The same goes later in pregnancy in cases that the pregnancy poses an important danger to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In the case that the abortion is because of a rape, counseling is not mandatory. The woman needs to receive counseling, called Schwangerschaftskonfliktberatung ("pregnancy-conflict counseling"), at least three days prior to the abortion and must take place at a state-approved centre, which afterwards gives the applicant a Beratungsschein ("certificate of counseling").

Contents

Doctors provide medication to cause the abortion, and observe to ensure there are no negative reactions to the medication.

Law

Abortion is illegal under Section 218 of the German criminal code, and punishable by up to three years in prison (or up to five years for "reckless" abortions or those against the pregnant woman's will). Section 218a of the German criminal code, called Exception to liability for abortion, makes an exception for abortions with counseling in the first trimester, and for medically necessary abortions and abortions due to unlawful sexual acts (such as sexual abuse of a minor or rape) thereafter. [1] [2]

All abortions in Germany must be performed by a medical doctor. [3]

Statistics

Abortion-numbers had been falling over the last 25 years, there were 130,000-135,000 per year between 1996 and 2002, but this had fallen to a low of fewer than 99,000 abortions in 2016 and since then stabilized at around 100,000 abortions yearly. [4]

As of 2018, the abortion rate was 129 abortions per 1,000 live births. [5]

History

Early

Abortion legislation was codified in item 133 of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (1532). Later were particular laws in Germany, e.g. in Prussia part 2 title 20 section 986-990 of General State Laws for the Prussian States (1794). 1851 it was codified in sections 181 and 182 of the Penal Code for Prussia, which formed the basis for the Penal Code of the North German Federation (1870). [6] On 15 May 1871, following the Proclamation of the German Empire, the latter code was incorporated into sections 218–220 of the Penal Code for the German Reich (Strafgesetzbuch), taking effect on 1 January 1872. Section 218 outlawed abortion, requiring a penal term for the woman and any involved person. Legalization of abortion was first widely discussed in Germany during the early 20th century. During the Weimar Republic, such discussion led 1926 to a reduction in the penalty for abortion, and in 1927 a court's decision – similar to the United Kingdom decision R v Bourne – decriminalized abortion in cases of grave danger to the life of the mother.

Nazi era

Nazi Germany's eugenics laws severely punished abortion for women belonging to the "Aryan race", but permitted abortion on wider and more explicit grounds than before if the fetus was believed to be deformed or disabled or if termination otherwise was deemed desirable on eugenic grounds, such as the child or either parent suspected of being carrier of a genetic disease. Sterilization of the parents also took place in some such cases. In cases where the parents were Jewish, abortion was also not punished. [7] [8]

The severest abortion prohibitions were incorporated into law on 9 March 1943. Section 218 stated that "a woman who kills her fetus or permits such a killing by another will be punished by a prison sentence and, in especially serious cases, by penitentiary. An attempt is punishable. Whoever else kills the fetus of a pregnant woman will be punished by a penitentiary sentence, in milder cases by prison. If the perpetrator through such deeds continuously impairs the vitality of the German nation, the death penalty is imposed. Whoever procures for the pregnant woman a means or objects for killing the fetus will be punished by prison sentence, and in especially serious cases, by penitentiary". During World War II, abortion policy in Nazi Germany varied depending on the people group and territory the policy was directed at. The commonality between policies was its purpose in promoting the birth rate and population of the "Aryan race" and minimizing the population of others (such as Slavs), and those deemed a burden on German society such as the children of disabled and mentally ill persons. Forced abortions of Ostarbeiter for instance was referenced in documents from the Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. It has been categorized as a part of Nazi Germany's "systematic program of genocide, aimed at the destruction of foreign nations and ethnic groups". [9]

While abortion had been punished by the law in Poland previously, under Nazi occupation these prohibitions were removed and abortion was instead encouraged subject to whether the child had a German father or could be racially "Germanized." Similarly, the policy for Eastern female workers, was that pregnancy may be "interrupted" if the pregnant woman so "desired" which gave the appearance of consent on behalf of the mother. For pregnancies of non-German woman, whether an abortion would be permitted also depended on the mother's nationality, but primarily turned on whether the father was German or if the mother was of a race that could be "Germanized." If the child was deemed to be of a race that could contribute to the German race and the father was German then an abortion, or as described in Nazi documents an "interruption of pregnancy," would likely not be permitted. Such determinations were made by the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA)– who would determine the fate of the child. [10]

Post-war

After World War II, abortion remained broadly illegal throughout both German states: West Germany retained the legal situation of 1927, while East Germany passed a slightly more encompassing set of exceptions in 1950. The legal requirements in the West were extremely strict, and often led women to seek abortions elsewhere, particularly in the Netherlands. It has been estimated that about 2 million women had abortions each year between 1945 and 1948, mostly in the Soviet zone. An abortion cost around 1,000 marks and was performed without anaesthesia. 6000 Berlin women died each year in the Soviet zone from resulting complications. [11]

On 6 June 1971, the cover of the West German magazine Stern ran with the headline "We've had abortions!" (German: Wir haben abgetrieben!), and featured the pictures of 30 women who had done so. [12] 374 women, some, but not all, of whom had a high public profile, publicly confessed that they had had pregnancies terminated, which at that time was illegal. They challenged §218 and asserted their right to abortion. [13] However, since 2010 a small number of those 374 women publicly confessed that they had either never aborted or not before 1971 and had actually lied for the Stern cover in 1971 because of their political beliefs.[ citation needed ]

East Germany legalized elective abortion until 12 weeks of pregnancy in 1972, in the Volkskammer's only non-unanimous vote ever in the first 40 years of its existence. After West Germany followed suit in 1974, its new law was struck down in 1975 by the Constitutional Court as inconsistent with the human rights guarantee of the constitution. It held that the unborn has a right to life, that abortion is an act of killing, and that the fetus deserves legal protection throughout its development.[ citation needed ] Nevertheless, the legal opinion strongly hinted that increasing the number of situations in which abortion was legal might be constitutional.[ citation needed ]

In East Germany, Female Vertragsarbeiter foreign workers were not allowed to become pregnant during their stay. If they did, they were forced to have an abortion [14] [15] or faced deportation.

In 1976, West Germany revised abortion law. According to the new modifications to §218, penalties for abortions are not enforced on doctors and patients when several conditions are met: terminations must be no later than twelve weeks of pregnancy – or must be performed for reasons of medical necessity, sexual crimes, or serious social or emotional distress – if approved by two doctors, and subject to counseling and a three-day waiting period. In 1989, a Bavarian doctor was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and 137 of his patients were fined for failing to meet the certification requirements.[ citation needed ]

The two laws had to be reconciled after reunification. A new law was passed by the Bundestag in 1992, permitting first-trimester elective abortion, subject to counseling and a three-day waiting period, and permitting late-term abortions when the physical or psychological health of the woman is seriously threatened. The law was quickly challenged in court by a number of individuals – including Chancellor Helmut Kohl – and by the State of Bavaria. The Constitutional Court decided a year later to maintain its earlier decision that the constitution protected the fetus from the moment of conception, but stated that it is within the discretion of parliament not to punish abortion in the first trimester,[ citation needed ] provided that the woman had submitted to state-regulated counseling intended to discourage termination and protect fetal life. Parliament passed such a law in 1995.[ citation needed ] Abortions are covered by public health insurance if the pregnancy was caused by sexual abuse, such as rape, or if the mother's health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy. For women with low income, the state governments pay for an abortion. [16]

In 2022, the Olaf Scholz coalition of social democrats, greens, and liberals, repealed paragraph 219a, together with votes from The Left. [17] This allowed medical professionals to state on their websites what kinds of abortion procedures they offer. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law</span> Laws that allow, prohibit, or regulate abortion

Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances. Many countries and territories that allow abortion have gestational limits for the procedure depending on the reason; with the majority being up to 12 weeks for abortion on request, up to 24 weeks for rape, incest, or socioeconomic reasons, and more for fetal impairment or risk to the woman's health or life. As of 2022, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population. In 2024, France became the first country to explicitly protect abortion rights in its constitution, while Yugoslavia implicitly inscribed abortion rights in its constitution in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in the Netherlands</span>

Abortion in the Netherlands was fully legalized on 1 November 1984, allowing elective abortion up to the 24th week of the pregnancy. Abortion for "serious medical reasons" can be performed after 24 weeks. There used to be a mandatory five-day waiting period for abortions done after one's menstrual period is 17 days overdue. However, on 21 June 2022, Dutch parliament approved a law to scrap the mandatory five-day reflection period before undergoing an abortion, saying women with a joint consultation with the doctor, should be able to determine the time before making a decision. The law went into effect in January 2023.

Strafgesetzbuch, abbreviated to StGB, is the German penal code.

Abortion in Sweden was first legislated by the Abortion Act of 1938. This stated that an abortion could be legally performed in Sweden upon medical, humanitarian, or eugenical grounds. That is, if the pregnancy constituted a serious threat to the woman's life, if she had been impregnated by rape, or if there was a considerable chance that any serious condition might be inherited by her child, she could request an abortion. The law was later augmented in 1946 to include socio-medical grounds and again in 1963 to include the risk of serious fetal damage. A committee investigated whether these conditions were met in each individual case and, as a result of this prolonged process, abortion was often not granted until the middle of the second trimester. As such, a new law was created in 1974, stating that the choice of an abortion is entirely up to the woman until the end of the 18th week.

<i>German Constitutional Court abortion decision, 1975</i>

BVerfGE 39,1 — Abortion I was a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, addressing the issue of abortion in 1975, two years after the United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

Abortion in Israel is permitted when determined by a termination committee, with the vast majority of cases being approved, as of 2019. The rate of abortion in Israel has steadily declined since 1988, and compared to the rest of the world, abortion rates in Israel are moderate. According to government data, in Israel, abortion rates in 2016 dropped steadily to 9 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, lower than England (16.2) and the United States (13.2). 99% of abortions are carried out in the first trimester. Despite allegations of permitting abortion under limited circumstances, Haaretz noted in 2019 that this is not the case, and abortion is almost always permitted in Israel.

Abortion is illegal in El Salvador. The law formerly permitted an abortion to be performed under some limited circumstances, but in 1998 all exceptions were removed when a new abortion law went into effect.

Abortion in Switzerland is legal during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, upon condition of counseling, for women who state that they are in distress. It is also legal with medical indications – threat of severe physical or psychological damage to the woman – at any later time. Switzerland is among the developed nations with the lowest rates of abortions and unwanted pregnancies.

This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in Colombia</span>

Abortion in Colombia is freely available on request up to the 24th week of pregnancy, due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2022. Later in pregnancy, it is only allowed in cases of risk of death to the pregnant woman, fetal malformation, or rape, according to a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006.

Abortion in Denmark was fully legalized on 1 October 1973, allowing the procedure to be done electively if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its 12th week. Under Danish law, the patient must be over the age of 18 to decide on an abortion alone; parental consent is required for minors, except in special circumstances. An abortion can be performed after 12 weeks if the woman's life or health are in danger. A woman may also be granted an authorization to abort after 12 weeks if certain circumstances are proved to be present.

Abortion in Greece has been fully legalized since 1986, when Law 1609/1986 was passed effective from 3 July 1986. Partial legalization of abortion in Greece was passed in Law 821 in 1978 that provided for the legal termination of a pregnancy, with no time limitation, in the event of a threat to the health or life of the woman. This law also allowed for termination up to the 12th week of pregnancy due to psychiatric indications and to the 20th week due to fetal pathology. Following the passage of the 1986 law, abortions can be performed on-demand in hospitals for women whose pregnancies have not exceeded 12 weeks. In the case of rape or incest, an abortion can occur as late as 19 weeks, and as late as 24 weeks in the case of fetal abnormalities. In case of inevitable risk to the life of the pregnant woman or a risk of serious and continuous damage to her physical or mental health, termination of pregnancy is legal any time before birth. Girls under the age of 18 must get written permission from a parent or guardian before being allowed an abortion.

Abortion in Liechtenstein is illegal in most circumstances with limited exceptions in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is at risk, or where the pregnancy has resulted from a sexual offence. Religion in Liechtenstein is mainly Roman Catholic, which is reflected in the faith of the ruling Princely House of Liechtenstein and in the country's laws and culture around pregnancy.

Foeticide, or feticide, is the act of killing a fetus, or causing a miscarriage. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications, whereas in law, feticide frequently refers to a criminal offense, in medicine the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces fetal demise to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.

Forced abortion is a form of reproductive coercion that refers to the act of compelling a woman to undergo termination of a pregnancy against her will or without explicit consent. Forced abortion may also be defined as coerced abortion, and may occur due to a variety of outside forces such as societal pressure, or due to intervention by perpetrators such as an intimate partner, parental guardian, medical practitioners, or others who may cause abortion by force, threat or coercion. It may also occur by taking advantage of a situation where a pregnant individual is unable to give consent, or when valid consent is in question due to duress. This may also include the instances when the conduct was neither justified by medical or hospital treatment, which does not include instances in which the pregnant individual is at risk of life-threatening injury due to unsustainable pregnancy. Similar to other forms of reproductive coercion such as forced sterilization, forced abortion may include a physical invasion of female reproductive organs, therefore creating the possibly of causing long term threat or injury preventing viable future pregnancies. Forced abortion is considered a human rights violation by the United Nations due to its failure to comply with the human right to reproductive choice and control without coercion, discrimination, and violence.

Abortion in Thailand is legal and available on-request up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been legal up to at least 12 weeks of pregnancy since 7 February 2021. Following a 2020 ruling of the Constitutional Court which declared a portion of the abortion statutes unconstitutional, the Parliament removed first-term abortion from the criminal code. Once strict, over time laws have been relaxed to take into account high rates of teen pregnancy, women who lack the means or will to raise children, and the consequences of illegal abortion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion in South Korea</span>

Abortion in South Korea was decriminalized, effective 1 January 2021, by a 2019 order of the Constitutional Court of Korea. It is currently legal throughout pregnancy, as no new law has been enacted. Thus there are no gestational limits or other restrictions.

In Yemen, abortions are only “permitted to save the life of a pregnant woman”, making it one of the strictest abortion laws in the Middle East and the world. Abortion is not widely accepted in Yemeni society. However, because of the recent conflict in Yemen, rape, honor killings, and unsafe abortions have increased in Yemen. According to a study conducted by Canadian Studies in Population, the number of unsafe and illegal abortions are high in Yemen, which can lead to fatal health risks for women.

Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. That includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents. The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline also excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism: for that, see Timeline of feminism.

In accordance with Egyptian law, abortion is considered a criminal act that violates the right to life, as it is often intended to terminate the fetus right to future life. The Egyptian legislature has dedicated a separate chapter in the Penal Code, Title III, titled "Abortion of Pregnant Women and the Manufacture and Sale of Adulterated Drinks Harmful to Health." Egyptian law does not explicitly define abortion. Instead, it outlines the various forms of abortion and the corresponding penalties. The Egyptian Court of Cassation defines it as "deliberately terminating a pregnancy prematurely."

References

  1. ↑ "Strafgesetzbuch (StGB) §218-219" (in German). buzer.de. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  2. ↑ "German Criminal Code". Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch – StGB)". www.gesetze-im-internet.de. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "Abortion numbers in Germany 1996-2020".
  5. ↑ "Abortion rate in Europe 2018". Statista. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  6. ↑ Henry P. David, Jochen Fleischhacker and Charlotte Hohn (March 1988). "Abortion and Eugenics in Nazi Germany". Population and Development Review. 14 (1): 81–112. doi:10.2307/1972501. JSTOR   1972501. PMID   11655915.
  7. ↑ Ferree, Myra Marx (2002). Shaping abortion discourse: democracy and the public sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521793841.
  8. ↑ Grossmann, Atina (1997). Reforming Sex: The German Movement for Birth Control and Abortion Reform, 1920–1950. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195363517.
  9. ↑ Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 (Volume 4). 1947. pp. 609–610.
  10. ↑ Tuomala, Jeffrey (1 January 2011). "Nuremberg and the Crime of Abortion" (PDF). University of Toledo Law Review. 42: 283.
  11. ↑ Richie, Alexandra (1998). Faust's Metropolis . New York: Carroll & Graf. p.  617. ISBN   0-7867-0510-8.
  12. ↑ "Stern 6 June 1971 (the cover)". Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  13. ↑ Thomas Grossbölting (2013). Der verlorene Himmel: Glaube in Deutschland seit 1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen. ISBN   978-3-525-30040-4.
  14. ↑ Karin Weiss: "Die Einbindung ehemaliger vietnamesischer Vertragsarbeiterinnen und Vertragsarbeiter in Strukturen der Selbstorganisation", In: Almut Zwengel: "Die Gastarbeiter der DDR - politischer Kontext und Lebenswelt". Studien zur DDR Gesellschaft; p. 264
  15. ↑ Pfohl, Manuela (1 October 2008), "Vietnamesen in Deutschland: Phuongs Traum", Stern , retrieved 18 October 2008
  16. ↑ "Schwangerschaftsabbruch". AOK. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  17. ↑ Hausding, Götz. "Deutscher Bundestag - Werbeverbot für Schwangerschaftsabbrüche gestrichen". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  18. ↑ Bundestagsfraktion, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. "Paragraf 219a ist endlich aufgehoben". Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.