On July 11, the abortion debate in Germany suddenly and unexpectedly exploded.
It was the final day before the Bundestag’s parliamentary summer recess, and the nomination of three new judges to the Federal Constitutional Court was slated for a vote. Judicial candidates are nominated by political parties and must receive a two-thirds majority. The process is routine and usually proceeds without incident.
One of the candidates, Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, is a professor of public law at the University of Potsdam who had advocated for the liberalization of Germany’s abortion laws. As First Things reported, Brosius-Gersdorf wrote in 2024 that “The assumption that human dignity applies wherever human life exists is a biological-naturalistic fallacy. Human dignity and the protection of life are legally decoupled.”
Abortion is illegal in Germany but, since 1995, has been permitted up until 12 weeks of pregnancy, and about 100,000 abortions occur every year. The German pro-life movement has been growing in strength over the past several years, and several organizations lobbied parliamentarians with their concerns about Brosius-Gersdorf. The Christian Democratic Union, which holds the “inviolable dignity of human beings in every phase of their development” as one of their party’s values, pulled their support for her nomination.
“She wants to implement a graduated right to life for unborn children according to their age—until 12 weeks, no right to life if the mother decides to have an abortion,” Alexandra Linder, the leader of Germany’s main pro-life federation Bundesverband Lebensrecht (BVL) told me. “We informed the Christian-Democratic parliamentarians, and they voted against her.”
In the fractious debate on July 11, Chancellor Friedrich Merz made a serious error. When Beatrix von Storch of the conservative AfD (Alternative for Germany) asked the chancellor if he could support a judicial candidate who “said that a child who is nine months old does not have human dignity before birth,” Merz replied, “Yes.”
“That was a great mistake made by the chancellor,” Linder said. “His own parliamentarians in the CDU and CSU were shocked; you could see that on the screen. I think he just underestimated the reaction to this wrong, laconic answer. That was the point at which the majority of his faction said ‘no’ to that candidate. The position of the CDU/CSU parliamentarians is ethically much better than among the Left.”
Brosius-Gersdorf withdrew her candidacy on August 7th, stating that the SPD and other leftist parties had stood by her “to the end,” but that her nomination was becoming a dangerous source of division within the governing coalition, which she sees as essential to preventing the ascendance of the AfD. Brosius-Gersdorf, incidentally, also supports banning the AfD.
That the abortion debate derailed a major judicial nomination and divided Germany’s governing coalition is an indication of the growing strength of the pro-life movement. “More and more people ask the right questions and are interested in the discussion because abortion, assisted suicide, organ donation, and surrogacy are very current debates, also thanks to our decades of work,” Linder told me.
The BVL’s pro-life organizations “work on all levels, lobbying, providing serious information and research, running pregnancy centers, school lessons, holding lectures, organizing the only German pro-life congress (October 2022, May 2025, October 2027), and orchestrating the biggest two Marches for Life every year in September (Berlin and Cologne, 20th September 2025),” Linder said.
The main opposition comes from the left-wing parties, left media, and the pro-abortion lobby (Pro Familia, Doctors for Choice). They organize many defamatory campaigns against us: We are ‘right-wing extremists,’ ‘fundamentalists,’ ‘homophobes,’ and ‘anti-feminists’ with connections to extreme right parties, and so on. Simply lies. And the more aggressive those media and organizations are towards us, the more attentive people become. At the moment we get a new anti-campaign every 2-3 months, also on the European level.
The abortion debate remains a live issue in Germany despite these establishment tactics. “During the last government there was a majority for abortion and similar matters,” said Linder. “They allowed advertisements for abortion and have forbidden help or prayer in front of abortion clinics. The earlier election in February (instead of September) avoided a massive change to the German abortion law that had been prepared. We could help to avoid that change, although they tried to realize it until the last minute before the elections.”
Nevertheless, the left-wing parties (SPD, Linke, Bündnis90/Die Grünen) want to legalize abortion, and they say there are not enough abortion clinics. They don’t give up and are getting very aggressive because they have already lost two battles this year. Our political focus is to prove that abortion is no solution for problems women have and is not a self-determined decision but a matter of extreme pressure by others and the circumstances.
Ultimately, Linder is optimistic. “Our work is based on our constitution, on science, and on human dignity. If we continue our work on that base, with calmness and respect for every person, we will finally win.” The fact that Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf will not be a federal judge is evidence that she may be right about that.
The German Abortion Wars
Karla Jara from Pixabay
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On July 11, the abortion debate in Germany suddenly and unexpectedly exploded.
It was the final day before the Bundestag’s parliamentary summer recess, and the nomination of three new judges to the Federal Constitutional Court was slated for a vote. Judicial candidates are nominated by political parties and must receive a two-thirds majority. The process is routine and usually proceeds without incident.
One of the candidates, Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, is a professor of public law at the University of Potsdam who had advocated for the liberalization of Germany’s abortion laws. As First Things reported, Brosius-Gersdorf wrote in 2024 that “The assumption that human dignity applies wherever human life exists is a biological-naturalistic fallacy. Human dignity and the protection of life are legally decoupled.”
Abortion is illegal in Germany but, since 1995, has been permitted up until 12 weeks of pregnancy, and about 100,000 abortions occur every year. The German pro-life movement has been growing in strength over the past several years, and several organizations lobbied parliamentarians with their concerns about Brosius-Gersdorf. The Christian Democratic Union, which holds the “inviolable dignity of human beings in every phase of their development” as one of their party’s values, pulled their support for her nomination.
“She wants to implement a graduated right to life for unborn children according to their age—until 12 weeks, no right to life if the mother decides to have an abortion,” Alexandra Linder, the leader of Germany’s main pro-life federation Bundesverband Lebensrecht (BVL) told me. “We informed the Christian-Democratic parliamentarians, and they voted against her.”
In the fractious debate on July 11, Chancellor Friedrich Merz made a serious error. When Beatrix von Storch of the conservative AfD (Alternative for Germany) asked the chancellor if he could support a judicial candidate who “said that a child who is nine months old does not have human dignity before birth,” Merz replied, “Yes.”
“That was a great mistake made by the chancellor,” Linder said. “His own parliamentarians in the CDU and CSU were shocked; you could see that on the screen. I think he just underestimated the reaction to this wrong, laconic answer. That was the point at which the majority of his faction said ‘no’ to that candidate. The position of the CDU/CSU parliamentarians is ethically much better than among the Left.”
Brosius-Gersdorf withdrew her candidacy on August 7th, stating that the SPD and other leftist parties had stood by her “to the end,” but that her nomination was becoming a dangerous source of division within the governing coalition, which she sees as essential to preventing the ascendance of the AfD. Brosius-Gersdorf, incidentally, also supports banning the AfD.
That the abortion debate derailed a major judicial nomination and divided Germany’s governing coalition is an indication of the growing strength of the pro-life movement. “More and more people ask the right questions and are interested in the discussion because abortion, assisted suicide, organ donation, and surrogacy are very current debates, also thanks to our decades of work,” Linder told me.
The BVL’s pro-life organizations “work on all levels, lobbying, providing serious information and research, running pregnancy centers, school lessons, holding lectures, organizing the only German pro-life congress (October 2022, May 2025, October 2027), and orchestrating the biggest two Marches for Life every year in September (Berlin and Cologne, 20th September 2025),” Linder said.
The abortion debate remains a live issue in Germany despite these establishment tactics. “During the last government there was a majority for abortion and similar matters,” said Linder. “They allowed advertisements for abortion and have forbidden help or prayer in front of abortion clinics. The earlier election in February (instead of September) avoided a massive change to the German abortion law that had been prepared. We could help to avoid that change, although they tried to realize it until the last minute before the elections.”
Ultimately, Linder is optimistic. “Our work is based on our constitution, on science, and on human dignity. If we continue our work on that base, with calmness and respect for every person, we will finally win.” The fact that Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf will not be a federal judge is evidence that she may be right about that.
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