Abortion: Paragraph 218 must go

It’s a strange situation. On the one hand, in Germany a woman can have an unwanted pregnancy terminated if she wants to. On the other hand, the state insists that the intervention is illegal.

How can that be? Abortion is fundamentally enshrined in criminal law as an injustice. However, the procedure remains without penalty if it is carried out within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. And if the woman has previously visited a counseling center.

This Section 218 in the Criminal Code is more than just an annoying rule. It has real consequences because some doctors prefer to stay away from the procedure under these circumstances. Because this in turn means that there are large gaps in care, especially in rural regions, and affected women have to travel long distances.

It doesn’t have to stay that way: the regulations for abortion do not have to be in criminal law; the same restrictions could also be stipulated elsewhere.

That’s exactly what MPs from the SPD, the Greens and the left-wing group want to achieve. They have submitted a group application to the Bundestag, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also signed. If the majority of the Bundestag agrees, the intervention would no longer be regulated in criminal law, but in the Pregnancy Conflict Act.

The new regulation would also ensure that unborn life is protected: As before, the pregnancy can only be terminated within the first twelve weeks, and the woman must still seek advice beforehand.

It would be morally right for this new regulation to come about. Then women and doctors would no longer be criminalized for a procedure that hardly anyone would seriously demand should not be possible in Germany. Our society believes that an unwanted pregnant woman should not be forced to carry a child that she does not want – fortunately!

But it is not certain that there will actually be a change. Representatives of the Union and AfD in particular argue against this that this is undoubtedly a sensitive topic for society “split”. That the topic is suitable for this “to trigger a completely unnecessary further major socio-political conflict in Germany”as CDU leader Friedrich Merz believes.

The argument seems plausible, but it has no demographic basis. A large majority of Germans (74 percent), both men and women, would think it would be right if abortion were permitted within the first twelve weeks in the future. This is the result of a new survey by Forsa on behalf of RTL/n-tv. There were similar results in the spring of this year.

The most support for legalization is among supporters of the Greens (91 percent), SPD (85), BSW (85), and FDP (78). But even among supporters of the Union (62) and the AfD (59), significantly more than half are in favor. This majority even exists among those surveyed who stated that they belonged to either the Protestant or Catholic Church.

There are “major socio-political conflicts” with a narrower majority. However, there is one thing that does not exist: a valid argument against abolishing the criminal law paragraph.

Two weeks ago, the application for the new regulation was submitted with signatures from 240 MPs. In a vote, this would not result in a majority. There are 733 members of parliament in the Bundestag. The Union should urgently reconsider its resistance to this matter.