BERLIN: Germany’s parliament on Friday removed a Nazi-era law that limits the information doctors and clinics can provide about abortion.

One of the most controversial sections of the penal code, paragraph 219a, prohibits the “promotion” of abortion, a crime punishable by “up to two years of imprisonment or a fine”.

The decision to finally consign the law to history came almost eight decades after its adoption in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler had taken power.

“It is high time,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told parliament.

It is “absurd” and “no longer in step with the times” that doctors are not allowed to provide complete information on abortion while “every troll and conspiracy theorist” is free to spout views about terminating pregnancies.

The ruling coalition, comprising Buschmann’s Free Democrats, the Social Democrats and the Greens, had made a pledge to remove the law when they signed up to govern together.

The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the far-right AfD voted against scrapping the law.

Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker of the CDU argued that while a woman may face difficulties because of an unwanted pregnancy, “we are also thinking of the child’s right to live”. She pointed this out as the “key difference” between the ruling coalition and her party.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2022