The nine-member group of professors appointed by the coalition government to examine a new regulation of abortion has scheduled a non-public hearing on November 23 in Berlin. Around 35 organizations, including the secular Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), were invited to present their opinions, which the commission had requested in advance by October, in greater detail.
EKD with internally uncoordinated statement
In its statement for the commission, the Council of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) cautiously approached a women’s rights-secular demand for the decriminalization of abortions: With the proposal of a deletion of § 218 StGB for the first twelve weeks of pregnancy with, however, a remaining obligation to provide counseling. However, this statement, which has already been sent to the commission by the EKD Council, has now met with sharp criticism within the Evangelical Church of Germany. The EKD Synod, which met until 15 November, suggests that this new course of liberalization may have to be corrected in the short term. In the plenary debate there, it was criticized that the conflict between the biblically prescribed protection of unborn life and the woman’s right to self-determination had been “unilaterally” resolved by the EKD Council in favour of the latter. The proposal to regulate abortion in future to a large extent outside of criminal law and according to time limits was rejected. It was also cited as a problem that the EKD was thus abandoning its theological common ground with the Catholic Church in the field of ethics.
“The discussion about abortion at the EKD synod shows us once again that humanist values can provide guidance here,” says Erwin Kress, spokesperson for the board of the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands – Bundesverband. “Self-determination and the need for protection must not be played off against each other. We will advocate to the Commission that abortions are finally decriminalized and destigmatized.”
Positioning of the Humanist Association of Germany
In the run-up to the hearing, specific key questions were sent to the organizations. The questions to the Humanist Association of Germany relate to the statement it submitted in October 2023 on the possible new regulation of abortion. In addition to the experiences of the HVD with the stigmatizing effects of abortion law and with the more difficult access to medical care, it is about its central humanist concern. The HVD statement states: “The imposed stigma of illegality represents a moral condemnation of abortion. It is to be feared that this will contribute to a further deterioration in the care situation at the expense of unwanted pregnant women.” All provisions, i.e. time limits, counseling and indication regulations, should be put to the test and can – including the sanctions for violations – “be regulated outside of criminal law (in a special law, a reformed Pregnancy Conflict Act or additionally in medical law)”.
The HVD advocates a new legal regulation of abortion outside of the German Criminal Code. This should ensure legal certainty for women and doctors providing treatment and also take into account the developmental stage of fetuses in late abortions from the fifth month of pregnancy. The new regulation should do justice to the current state of biomedical knowledge, changing social values and ideological pluralism.
As early as 2022, the HVD published the position paper “ Humanist positions and arguments against the current penal provisions on abortion ” was unanimously adopted at its Council of Delegates. On this basis, the brochure ” On the new regulation of abortions. Position of the Humanist Association of Germany“.
