The German government wants to slightly ease the law concerning doctor-patient communication about abortions. But few people are thrilled by the draft changes. Abortion advocates in particular are up in arms.
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The abortion debate in Germany has rekindled after a government decision to narrow the country's prohibition on doctors advertising pregnancy terminations. At present, Paragraph 219a of the criminal code imposes a blanket ban. Following charges brought this year against a trio of gynecologists, Germany wants to precisely define the sort of information doctors are allowed to pass on.
A vote on the draft legislation isn't expected until early next year, but Bundestag deputies immediately seized upon the opportunity to put abortion back in the spotlight.
The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is staunchly anti-abortion, introduced a special debate session on Thursday afternoon to discuss calls by the youth division of the Social Democrats (SPD) to strike the main abortion laws from the books. The AfD claimed, falsely, that the proposal would have allowed for terminations in the ninth month of pregnancies, for which the populists earned the approbation and scorn of the other parties.
Women's movements in Germany — a long history
Women have been fighting for equal rights in Germany for over 170 years. Despite their extraordinary achievements, the #MeToo movement also shows that much still has to be done.
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'Songbird of the German women's movement'
Author Louise Otto-Peters (1819-1895) is a pioneer of Germany's women's movement. At the age of 24, she called for more female participation in decision-making and co-founded with other suffragists the General German Women's Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein) in 1865. The activist also wrote poetry and novels, earning her the "songbird" nickname.
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Helene Lange fought for equal opportunities
Girls didn't have easy access to education in Germany at the end of the 19th century. The women's movement of the late 1890s aimed to emancipate girls and women through schooling. Teacher and feminist Helene Lange (1948-1930) was a leading figure in this movement; she also founded different women's suffrage groups.
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Mother of the 'proletarian' women's movement
Activist Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) fought for stronger representation of women in trade unions, women's suffrage and abortion rights — already aiming to abolish the controversial Paragraph 218 of German criminal law, which remained an activists' issue well into the 1970s. She also contributed to establishing International Women's Day.
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Anita Augspurg and her women's group
Anita Augspurg (1857-1943) and her associates didn't care much about social conventions. Augspurg lived together with her girlfriend, and they both wore men's clothes and short hair. As a lawyer, she fought for women's suffrage — granted in Germany in 1918 — and the rights of prostitutes. Augspurg's association participated in forming international women's networks.
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Backlash during the Nazi era
The Nazis rejected emancipatory movements. Women were expected to stick to their traditional roles as wives and mothers. The Nazi party promoted an image of women that had previously been dispelled by activists. In the eyes of the Nazis, women's rights groups had been created by Jews or Communists and needed to be suppressed.
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'German woman! Help too'
For several years under Hitler, German women's fundamental role was to bear as many children as possible and raise them with Nazi values, in order to help maintain the "Aryan race." Women who were particularly successful in this regard were honored with the Cross of Honor of the German Mother ("Mutterkreuz"). However, this changed once the war started, as women were needed in the workforce.
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Post-war reconstruction
With the end of World War II in 1945, German women came to play an important role in the reconstruction of the war-torn country. They not only helped remove debris, but also made their voices heard in politics. New women's associations picked up the work that had been stalled in 1933, aiming to achieve equal rights for women.
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The pill: A new form of freedom
In 1961, birth control pills became available in Germany. At first, they were only prescribed to married women — officially against menstruation pains. But the pill quickly became widespread, and strongly contributed to the sexual emancipation of women in the late 1960s.
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Feminists from the student movement
The 1968 West German student movement fought not only to reform universities, but also against authoritarian structures and for sexual emancipation. However, the leadership of the movement was male-dominated; feminist activists went their own way. The banner on the right reads "Emancipation = Class conflict" — the influence of Marxist theory nevertheless remained strong for them too.
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1971: 'We've had abortions!'
In Germany, abortion was a criminal offence until the 1970s. Following the sexual revolution of the late 60s, activists demanded the abolition of Paragraph 218 that outlaws abortion. In 1971, the magazine Stern published the names of 374 women admitting they had an abortion. The ban was lifted in 1975, and the law has been ammended several times since, legalizing abortions under certain terms.
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An eloquent fighter: Alice Schwarzer
A pioneer of Germany's feminist movement, Alice Schwarzer founded the country's first feminist magazine, EMMA, in 1977 that avoided all glamour and tackled political issues. Schwarzer remains a controversial figure in the country, but she has also driven important debates that have led to necessary changes for women.
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Freedom in purple overalls
In the mid 1970s, the West German women's movement also took on a new symbol — purple overalls, usually worn by workmen. Today, it is hard to believe how many restrictions were still imposed on women at the time, especially married women. It was only in 1977 that wives in West Germany were entitled to be gainfully employed without their husbands' authorization.
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Indescribably feminine!
When "The Godmother of German Punk" — Nina Hagen — released her debut album in 1978, she attracted both criticism and enthusiasm. A woman fronting a punk rock band? Socially critical texts using plain vulgar language? A woman masturbating in front of a camera during a TV show? No other woman came to symbolize female freedom and liberty to that extent. Nina Hagen became a cult figure.
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A new awareness
"If men could become pregnant, abortion would be a fundamental right," says this banner from a 1993 protest. Women's voices grew stronger through associations for lesbians, women lawyers and peace activists. With the Green Party, feminism made it into Germany's parliament. Even the Christian Democrats followed suit, appointing a woman as a minister. But it took until 1997 to outlaw marital rape.
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No end in sight
Although women's movements have achieved some of their goals, a lot still remains to be done. Men still dominate Germany's parliament and big companies. Men still earn more money for doing the same job as women. And they still misuse their positions of power by sexually harassing or abusing women. Chances are that the #metoo movement founded in October 2017 will remain busy for some time to come.
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"Nonsense," scoffed one Left Party spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, the center-right Free Democrats (FDP), which emphasizes individual civil liberties, put forward a resolution to repeal Paragraph 219a entirely. But it was show down late Thursday evening by the governing coalition of conservatives and the SPD.
Conservatives and progressives simply don't see eye-to-eye on the issue, which could represent a problem from the governing coalition as the SPD itself is split. Abortion advocates hate the proposed amendment of 219a, while traditionalists are mainly happy that it preserves the essence of a historic restriction.
The specter of Nazi disregard for human life makes the abortion issue particularly fraught in Germany. On Wednesday evening, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer — the newly elected and usually moderate chairwoman of the conservative CDU — tweeted: "The protection of life, unborn and born, has an overriding significance for the CDU. It's good that the ban on advertising remains."
But Paragraph 219a itself dates all the way back to 1933, and for more than sixty years, abortion was strictly taboo. It wasn't until 1995 that German law was changed to decriminalize pregnancy terminations, although abortion technically remains against the law.
German law mandates that women having abortions undergo consultations that, legally, "are to serve to protect unborn life, encourage the woman to continue her pregnancy and open up perspectives for a life with her child." It also forbids any advertising for abortion services.
It was under this blanket ban that three doctors were charged this year for referring to the possibility of pregnancy termination on their websites. The draft legislative amendment agreed by the governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) aims to prevent that in future by having the state determine in advance what sort of statements are permissible. But abortion advocates are anything but happy.
Physician Kristina Hänel is one of three doctors facing criminal chargesImage: picture alliance/dpa
'The proposal does absolutely nothing'
In a joint statement, the three gynecologists charged under the existing law vigorously rejected the proposed changes, saying lawmakers lacked the courage to change an outmoded ban.
"As the doctors affected by the criminal charges, we're appalled," they wrote. "On closer examination, this supposed compromise proposal does absolutely nothing. Paragraph 219a continues to exist in its entirety, including its threat of two years' imprisonment."
A particular bone of contention is the government's plans to commission a study about purported post-abortion depression among women.
"It's completely incomprehensible why the government formulated the idea for a study about the psychological effects of abortion," said the reproductive rights organization pro familia in a statement. "Post-abortion syndrome is an invention of those who oppose reproductive self-determination and has nothing to do with the right to abortion information.
The number of abortions in Germany (100,000 in 2017) has markedly declined in the new millennium, but advocates complain that anti-abortion protests are on the rise and increasing in vehemence. They say websites such as the infamous "Babykaust," which compares abortion with the Holocaust, incite violence and make physicians afraid to do their jobs. And the proposed law, they object, does nothing to change this situation.
Together with the FDP and the youth wing of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party favor a complete abolition of the advertising ban.
Pro-life groups are happy that Paragraph 219a will be preservedImage: picture-alliance/dpa/A.Dedert
'Thankful conservatives stuck to their guns'
By contrast, pro-life and church organizations support the government's approach.
"We're very thankful that the conservatives stuck to their guns and preserved the paragraph," Alexandra Lindner of the Federal Association of the Right to Life told Deutsche Welle. "We're especially happy that there's finally going to be a scientific study about the consequences for women."
But some opponents of abortion object to any loosening of regulations. "There is sufficient and very detailed information about abortion, especially on the Internet," Anna Gerber, spokeswoman for the anti-abortion group pro femina, told DW. "That's why we believe that Paragraph 219a correctly criminalizes 'advertising for the termination of pregnancy…in the interests of profit.'"
Lindner explicitly distances herself and her organization from the "excesses" of sites like Babykaust and says that her organization is willing to work with all political parties, including the AfD. But she's highly critical of the FDP's proposal to do away with paragraph 219a entirely.
"It's senseless in every respect and runs contrary to German law and the constitutional guarantee of the dignity of human life," Lindner says. "It's not only unnecessary but counter-productive."
