The Union in the Bundestag has sharply criticized a proposed law by some parliamentarians who want to legalize abortions up to the twelfth week. Party leader Merz was particularly outraged by Chancellor Scholz.
An initiative by members of the SPD and the Greens is being rejected by the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag: it is a legislative proposal to legalize abortions in the first three months.
Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz particularly sharply attacked Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who co-signed the bill as an SPD MP. “I am really horrified that the same Chancellor, who keeps talking about cohesion, getting along and community spirit, appears with his signature on the list of this group proposal.”
Merz warns of “major conflict”
The aim of the initiative is to attempt to abolish Section 218 “as a quick process at the end of the electoral period,” said Merz. It is an issue “that polarizes the country like no other, and that is more likely than any other to trigger another completely unnecessary major socio-political conflict in Germany.”
“If we talk about this topic, then we need time, then we also need reports on what is constitutionally permissible,” said Merz. As recently as April, a commission set up by the federal government presented recommendations for liberalizing abortions and advocated deleting the law from the criminal code.
Years of dispute over paragraph 218
Currently, abortions are illegal according to Section 218 of the Criminal Code. In fact, they remain unpunished for the first twelve weeks if the woman seeks advice beforehand. Abortion also remains unpunished if there are medical reasons or if it is carried out because of rape.
The abolition of the paragraph has been debated for years. According to the latest proposal from MPs, abortions should become legal up to the twelfth week. The obligation to provide counseling would remain, but without the current obligation to wait three days between counseling and abortion. If an abortion is carried out without a certificate of consultation, only the doctor should be liable to prosecution in the future. The woman would remain unpunished.
Voting planned before the election
According to the initiators’ wishes, the proposal should be voted on before the new Bundestag elections on February 23rd. The initiative was actually only planned for next spring. However, the break in the traffic light coalition “pulled the organizers’ feet away” because they no longer expected a “progressive majority” in parliament after the new election.
According to the initiators, 236 of the 733 members of the Bundestag had signed the application by Thursday. In addition to the SPD and the Greens, politicians from the Left also signaled support.
