The Bundestag decided on Friday to abolish the so-called advertising ban for abortions. This is intended to make access to information about an abortion easier for unwanted pregnant women.
The Bundestag has decided to lift the controversial advertising ban for abortions. A large majority of MPs voted in plenary on Friday in favor of the government’s bill to remove the relevant section 219a of the criminal code.
The coalition factions of SPD, Greens and FDP as well as the left faction voted for the deletion, while Union and AfD voted against. The paragraph prohibited medical practices and clinics from providing detailed information about the different methods of termination.
In the past, doctors have been condemned by courts for providing information about performing abortions.
The legal policy spokeswoman for the Union faction, Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU), spoke out before the vote against abolishing the advertising ban for abortions. “We don’t want any public advertising for abortions, for example on the Internet or in social media,” she said in the Bundestag. “An unborn child has the right to life and human dignity from the very beginning. Awareness of this is increasingly lost when practices and clinics advertise that they can carry out an abortion particularly well, as we know from other countries without an advertising ban.”
Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus, on the other hand, celebrated the planned end of the so-called advertising ban on abortion as a “triumph”. In this way, the self-determination of women in Germany is strengthened, said the Green politician of the German Press Agency. Paus expressed his relief that this practice should now be a thing of the past. “Doctors can finally provide factual information about an abortion without having to fear criminal prosecution or stigmatization,” said Paus. “Today is a good day for the doctors in Germany – and especially for the women in our country.” “An abortion should not be a criminal offence, but a health service,” emphasized the minister.
