“Kristina Hänel is consistently pursuing her courageous path to Karlsruhe before the Federal Constitutional Court. We welcome this step by Ms. Hänel and stand by her side as a member of the Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination. Paragraph 219a must finally be abolished. The so-called reform of the paragraph has not helped women to gain the important and comprehensive access to information,” explains Katrin Raczynski, board member of the HVD Bundesverband. “Doctors must be able to provide information about how they carry out medical interventions – and those affected must have easy and low-threshold access to this important information. The fight for women’s self-determination is entering the next round!”
The Hänel case has occupied the judiciary and politicians for years: The doctor from Giessen was sentenced to a fine in November 2017 on the basis of Section 219a for providing information on abortions on her website. In July 2019, the sentence was initially overturned as the law had been amended in the meantime. A further paragraph had been added to Section 219a, according to which doctors, hospitals and other facilities that perform abortions may provide information about the fact that they offer abortions , but not about the methods. The HVD Bundesverband had sharply criticized this completely inadequate reform and repeatedly called for paragraph 219a to be deleted without replacement.
In December 2019, the Higher Regional Court of Giessen confirmed the verdict against Kristina Hänel, and her appeal against it was rejected this week. The fact that the ruling is now legally binding means two things: firstly, the path to the Constitutional Court is finally clear. Secondly, Hänel is now forced to remove the information on abortion from her website. In a solidarity campaign, supported among others by the Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination, numerous civil society actors are now publishing this information in her place.
Update: The HVD Bundesverband is supporting Kristina Hänel with a donation to cover her legal costs. If you would like to do the same, you can find more information about the donation account for Kristina Hänel and the doctors Bettina Gaber and Verena Weyer, who have also been convicted of § 219a, here.
The Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association has been committed to sexual and reproductive self-determination since its foundation. Our demands can be found in this news item, among others: “A good start would be to finally remove paragraph 219a from the Criminal Code”
