Title: German court restricts abortion, angering feminists and the East.
Abstract: Germanys Constitutional Court ruled on May 28 1993 that the countrys new liberal abortion law was unconstitutional. The court imposed interim restrictions and sent the issue back to Parliament which had passed the law in 1992 to make abortions legal in the first 3 months of pregnancy. The Court ruled that the abortion law was unconstitutional because it violated a constitutional provision requiring the state to protect human life. But at the same time the court said that neither women who undergo abortions in the first 3 months of pregnancy nor their doctors should be prosecuted. As long as abortions are officially illegal health insurance will not cover the cost and state-supported hospitals will stop performing them. A woman seeking an abortion must receive counseling in an effort to dissuade her. Protesters took to the streets in several German cities while Catholic bishops welcomed the ruling. Regine Hildebrandt minister for social affairs in the state of Brandenburg denounced the ruling. From 1973 until its collapse in 1990 the East German state provided abortions without charge to all women who wanted them. In West Germany abortion was allowed only if doctors certified that continued pregnancy would be harmful to the woman or her child or if pregnancy was the result of a criminal assault. All the justices are from West German. There were about 125000 abortions in Germany in 1991 in comparison with >180000 in 1981. Several influential feminists urged women to organize protests against the ruling. A senior member of Parliament said the ruling effectively legalized abortion for women who could pay the costs which range from $200-650 but placed it beyond the reach of poorer women. Germany now joins Spain Portugal and Italy as countries which impose some restrictions on abortion. Other European countries allow abortion virtually on request during the first 3 months of pregnancy.
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-05-29
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
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