A body of advisors appointed by the German coalition government is pushing to expand abortion laws.
The panel, made up of 18 people with backgrounds in medicine, psychology, ethics and law, was set up by Olaf Scholz’s left-wing traffic light coalition last year, and now says lawmakers should legalise abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to reports.
Existing German law only allows for abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and only after mandatory counselling from a state-certified provider. If a pregnancy is the result of rape, counselling is not required before an abortion.
Its recommendation comes as the abortion lobby steps up calls for the practice to be liberalised across much of the rest of Europe. However, German writer Max Roland said that Scholz was opening the door to “the next culture war,” and that he was doing so “without necessity.”
Roland noted that while abortion is currently “fundamentally illegal” in Germany, “in many circumstances it goes unpunished,” adding:
Whether the measure is legal or unpunished makes no real difference to those affected. This opens up a highly controversial culture war that serves no one—except the parties that are pushing it. These are mainly the Greens and [Scholz’s] SPD.
The final report from the 18 advisors has yet to be published, but its text has been seen by some German newspapers. Der Spiegel quoted part of the document which states that
The fundamental illegality of abortion in the early phase of pregnancy is untenable.
Junge Freiheit adds that the commission believes abortions should only be prohibited after the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, though it also believes exemptions should apply after this ‘cut-off’ “if the continuation of the pregnancy is unreasonable for the woman.”
The commission’s recommendations are not legally binding for the federal government, although Justice Minister Marco Buschmann last year expressed his hope that they act as a launching point “for the necessary broad political and social discussion” going forward.
