Berlin – How significant. The failure of the draft in the Federal Council on the much-needed removal of Section 219a from the Criminal Code – which is intended to punish medical provision of information on the termination of pregnancy – clearly shows how power is currently being distributed in this country. Should someone say again that all genders have the same rights or opportunities here. It would be just another lie in a political system ruled by economic growth and patriarchal domination.
Paragraph 219a punishes doctors who want to provide information about the termination of an unwanted pregnancy in a factually and medically detailed manner. Something like this: “A drug-based, anesthetic-free abortion in a protected atmosphere is also one of our services,” as the Berlin gynecologist Bettina Gaber originally stated on her website. But for such a sentence there is up to two years in jail.
The states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Thuringia and Bremen presented a legislative initiative to the Federal Council on Friday to delete Section 219a without replacement. Berlin’s Justice Senator Behrendt tried to convince his colleagues from the state governments with arguments: The current situation was “absurd”. Christian fundamentalists are allowed to hold vigils in front of advice centers such as Pro Familia and harass pregnant women in the emergency situation they are in with pictures of bloody fetuses and flyers with false information about the development of an embryo. Meanwhile, gynecologists have to go to court if they provide factual information about medical treatment.
In the live stream of the vote in the Federal Council, only four countries were seen raising their hands to approve the draft. It was predominantly those in charge of government with conservative participation who, in silent rejection, took the position of right-wing reactionary opponents of gender self-determination. Zack, next point. As if nothing happened.
But there is something else.
Apparently there are still decision-makers who tolerate and welcome the fact that the bodies of pregnant women have to be used as a battleground for maintaining male power. The refusal to delete the paragraph – even to only bring the debate to the federal parliament – is a symptom of this.
Paragraph 219a has no place in the Criminal Code
Blocking access to knowledge has always been a powerful tool of repression. That’s convenient, because you don’t even have to really stand by the hostile image of women that underlies this ignorance: the assumption that a pregnant person is unable to distinguish advertising from information?
This can be nodded very easily from the spectator stand in the Federal Council. Patients and doctors are those who end up having to endure the gauntlet between murmuring prayer circles in front of counseling centers and courtrooms.
There are many suggestions for professionally accompanying an abortion and supporting those affected that could be discussed. However, the decisive and unifying feature must be first and foremost: none of this has lost anything in the Criminal Code. Paragraph 219a cannot even be reformed. It should be deleted, and quickly.
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