A positive pregnancy test, far from being great news, can become a nightmare for many women in Germany. The image abroad of a modern and progressive country in many areas contrasts with the stigma and problems that many women who wish to have an abortion still face today. “Yes, we are also surprised that this is the case. And we look with a little envy at countries like Spain and France. We also don’t understand why it’s still like this here,” acknowledges Claudia Hohmann, director of the Pro Familia counseling center in Frankfurt.
Going to a center like yours is the first step that women who wish to have an abortion must take as long as they are within the first 12 weeks from conception. It is one of the conditions set out in article 218a of the German Penal Code, along with “three days of reflection”, so that neither women nor doctors are prosecuted, since abortion remains illegal in Germany.
“Many women are not particularly happy about having to do this mandatory counseling,” explains the sexual educator. “Some already know how everything goes and all they need is the certificate,” she adds about a meeting in which that document is always obtained.
The purpose is to inform about the help options that exist to carry the pregnancy to term. “The advice should be open, not instructing or patronizing,” says a spokesperson for the Federal Center for Health Education of the German Ministry of Health. This means that they are not advised in any direction, at least in centers legally recognized by the State. “The majority do a good job, but even so, some perceive this condescension and often have the feeling that they have to justify why they want to interrupt the pregnancy and they feel judged,” indicates Dr. Alicia Baier, president of the association. Doctors for Choice Germany.
Added to this are the protests. The Pro Familia center in Frankfurt is one of those that suffers the most from these anti-abortion groups that come together under the international organization 40 Days for Life, which usually calls for protests in autumn and spring in countries around the world.
“Since 2017 we have had these protests regularly twice a year. During these ’40 days for life’, we have a group in front of the door, who sings, prays and shows signs to the women who come to the center,” criticizes Hohmann. To avoid this pressure, the German Government has presented a draft law in Parliament to prohibit these acts within a radius of 100 meters from the entrance of counseling centers or clinics where abortions are performed; a regulation similar to the Spanish one, which was proposed for the same reason, and which has been in force since 2022, when the Penal Code was modified to punish with imprisonment from three months to one year or with work for the benefit of the community from 31 to 80 days to those who try to hinder the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
The objection of professionals
In Germany, with that certificate in hand after going through those counseling clinics, a new problem appears: finding a doctor. The protests and the fear of appearing on anti-abortion websites or what they will say makes many gynecologists think twice before offering this service or, if they do, they prefer not to indicate it on their website. “It is much easier not to have an abortion than to do it,” summarizes Baier.
“While in Berlin the care is very good, in some regions like Bavaria it is very poor and often there is only one doctor in a very large region,” he comments on a fact that is also included in a scientific study carried out by the ELSA project, which shows that There is “a greater availability of abortion providers in the northern and eastern states than in the western and southern states of Germany.”
Furthermore, the problem is that they did not learn to perform abortions during their training, something that the Government also wants to change and make learning to perform this practice mandatory in medical studies. As Baier explains, the issue of abortion is barely discussed during the course and it is only about the legal and ethical aspects.
Doctors for Choice Germany organizes workshops with papayas to teach future doctors how to do them and to focus on this shortage of qualified professionals. Students learn the medical fundamentals of abortion under the guidance of expert gynecologists. They perform vacuum aspiration of the seeds on a papaya, which is one of the two most common forms of abortion. “These papaya workshop They are rather an incentive for people to become interested in the topic,” Baier acknowledges.
In his opinion, the problem is in the hospitals where students have to carry out their continuing training. In many of them they are not performed, so gynecologists finish their training without having seen a single abortion.
From Doctors for Choice Germany they have also helped develop the first telemedicine project in Germany with three video interviews to carry out a voluntary pharmacological interruption of pregnancy (with pills): a preliminary one to see if the conditions prior to sending the medication, a second for taking the first medication, and then again afterward, if necessary. This system was copied from England, where it is very common, and it especially helps regions like Bavaria, where many of the queries come from.
“We feel a little horrified when we hear these calls from desperate women looking for help, when they tell us how long they have been looking for a doctor, how many consultations they have called and their fear of not being able to have an abortion in time,” she adds about women’s obstacles. To which is ultimately added the price, which ranges between 350 and 600 euros in Germany.
The pregnant woman must pay the payment unless she has a very low income, the pregnancy was the result of rape or it poses a serious risk to the woman’s life or health. If abortion were legalized, this cost would automatically fall on the insurer.
But abortion is not the only area where Germany seems to be lagging behind other countries. Same-sex marriage was not approved until 2017—in fact, Article 175 of the German Penal Code, which criminalized homosexual relations, was not repealed until 1994—and health insurance until recently required being married to cover the costs of fertility treatments.
“We keep hearing that people abroad think that Germany is very liberal and many people are surprised that here we have such retrograde and much more restrictive abortion laws compared to many European countries,” says Baier, who believes that “Germany “It continues to be backward in many areas of family law or in numerous feminist issues.”
In a country with a relatively stable pregnancy termination rate of between 5.6 and 5.9 abortions per 1,000 women between 15 and 49 years old since 2012, more and more voices defend legalizing it. Last week, a commission of experts created at the request of the German Government recommended decriminalizing abortion, which for more than 150 years has been listed in the “Crimes against life” section, which also lists murder and manslaughter.
Law professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, one of the coordinators of the group of experts, explains that the problem that it remains illegal is due to two rulings by the German Constitutional Court, in 1975 and 1993, in which it was declared that the “ “Abortion is in principle illegal throughout the pregnancy” and the exceptions only apply if there is an indication that the mother’s life is in danger or if it is the result of a sexual crime.
Although the majority of Germans are in favor of abortion, there is resistance that comes from the relationship with fundamental issues of prenatal protection of the life of the unborn and a woman’s right to self-determination. “It is not easy to find a fair balance between these issues. “Everyone has an opinion on the matter, which often depends on individual values and basic attitudes,” the expert points out.
“Germany needs an objective and non-polarizing debate on the general issue,” reflects Liane Wörner, professor of law and also a member of the committee. “The protection of life is very important in this debate and plays a leading and important role in Germany. But it does not justify ignoring the human and reproductive rights of women, nor unduly restricting them.”
