As Germany continues to move towards legalizing abortion, Lisa Paus, Federal Minister for Family Affairs, is promising to introduce legislation blocking pro-lifers from exercising free speech near abortion facilities.
Though abortion is illegal in Germany and punishable by up to three years in prison, neither women nor abortionists face penalties for abortions when the mother’s health is at risk (though intentionally killing a child before birth is not medically necessary) or when the pregnancy is the result of rape. In addition, abortion can be committed in the first 12 weeks after fertilization (14 weeks LMP) as long as the mother undergoes mandatory counseling. Paus and the Ministry for Family Affairs are working to decriminalize abortion, with Paus saying that the penal code is “not the right place” to regulate “the human right to reproductive self-determination.”
“Who else but the pregnant women themselves should decide whether they want or can carry a child?” she added.
Deutsche Welle, a state-owned news service, reported that Paus has vowed to strike back against pro-lifers with buffer zones as 40 Days for Life prayer vigils start in Germany. “Women must have unhindered access to counseling services and facilities that perform abortions,” she told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media. “The German government will counter this with legal measures.”
She further described the prayer vigils as “violations and unacceptable attacks on women’s extremely personal decision.”
Paus also mentioned introducing buffer zone legislation at that time, saying, “We are working flat out to end sidewalk harassment of pregnant women. It’s not easy, because we’re dealing with the conflict between women’s right to self-determination and the demonstrators’ right to freedom of assembly and expression.”
Cornelia Kaminski, chairwoman of Action to Live for Everyone (ALfA), responded to Paus’ earlier statements in January, pointing out that all Paus is doing is trying to criminalize free speech.
“While the protests of the ‘last generation’, whose actions sometimes pose a considerable threat to the maintenance of public order, are not only tolerated by the state but are even publicly welcomed in some cases, the right of pro-life activists to freedom of expression, of which at all pose no such dangers, be circumcised,” she said. “It is obvious that double standards are measured here and rather than law, ideology is the yardstick.”
Paus isn’t the only lawmaker looking to block pro-life efforts with buffer zones. Katja Mast, a lawmaker from the Social Democratic Party, likewise was quoted by German broadcaster Tagesschau as calling for legislation to be passed targeting pro-life advocates. “The state dictates that women must seek counseling in a difficult conflict situation. Then the state must also make sure that women can access counseling centers without harassment or stigmatization,” she said. “We are proposing an expansion of the Pregnancy Conflict Act to explicitly require unhindered access to counseling centers by law.”
Though abortion has yet to be decriminalized, the German Federal Office of Statistics reported that 26,500 abortions were committed in the third quarter of 2022, an increase of 16.7% over the same period in 2021.
