My mother, who was born in the 1950s and grew up in Amsterdam in the 1960s and 1970s, happened to live near a doctor’s office that provided abortions to foreign women back then. Unfortunately it really seems like very little has changed in the last 50 years. While reproductive rights on paper are largely ok in most European countries, the real situation on the ground often differs.
I for one, as a Dutchman, am still flabbergasted that abortion remains technically illegal where I live (Germany) and it’s only thanks to the good graces of the state that this crime isn’t punished. Why do Germans (Italians, Poles, …) accept this? This is not acceptable. As the article states: if men could get pregnant you could get an abortion at the barbers.
I’m not so sure it’s only that. Using Germany as an example, since it’s a place I’m fairly familiar with: there’s been a majority in parliament to legalise abortion several times, most recently under Chancellor Scholz, yet nobody wants to touch the issue. There’s also a broad consensus that it should be legal. Even 59% of far right voters and 62% of Christian Democrats voters believe it should be legal. Probably the minority is just very vocal and committed.
I wouldn’t trust those poll numbers because practically noone actually understands the legal status of abortions. I would believe that for many people “legal” means “I won’t go to prison” and by that account yes Germany has legal abortions, even though technically they are… “not punished” is not the right term. I’m still not sure I actually understand what “the offence is not realised” actually means. Someone with a law degree please ELI20.
Declaring at-will abortions straight-up legal probably won’t fly as the constitutional court has quite good arguments against that, what should absolutely be possible is to, in very clear terms, say that the state does not rule on the legality of the abortion: The constitutional court never said that at-will abortions can’t be legal in specific cases, it said that there cannot be a general judgement that at-will abortions are legal in all cases: It always depends on how the rights of pregnant woman vs. fetus balance out in a particular case. You can’t have a court decide on the specific cases though as that’d be a grave impingement of the right to privacy, so it’s left to the woman.
tl;dr: To square that circle the state would say “Is your abortion legal, or just not punished? How would I know, ask your conscience”.
Oh and just for completeness’ sake that’s all about at-will abortions, abortions for medical or criminological reasons are always legal because, in essence, self-defence.
And lastly: I don’t think it’s the right construction site. How about we make sure that states actually fulfil their duty to have abortions actually available, which is something with actual practical impact, not just shuffling around legalese. Make sure there’s gynecologists performing them and so on. Looking specifically at you, Bavaria.
My mother, who was born in the 1950s and grew up in Amsterdam in the 1960s and 1970s, happened to live near a doctor’s office that provided abortions to foreign women back then. Unfortunately it really seems like very little has changed in the last 50 years. While reproductive rights on paper are largely ok in most European countries, the real situation on the ground often differs.
I for one, as a Dutchman, am still flabbergasted that abortion remains technically illegal where I live (Germany) and it’s only thanks to the good graces of the state that this crime isn’t punished. Why do Germans (Italians, Poles, …) accept this? This is not acceptable. As the article states: if men could get pregnant you could get an abortion at the barbers.
Religion, in my opinion.
I’m not so sure it’s only that. Using Germany as an example, since it’s a place I’m fairly familiar with: there’s been a majority in parliament to legalise abortion several times, most recently under Chancellor Scholz, yet nobody wants to touch the issue. There’s also a broad consensus that it should be legal. Even 59% of far right voters and 62% of Christian Democrats voters believe it should be legal. Probably the minority is just very vocal and committed.
I wouldn’t trust those poll numbers because practically noone actually understands the legal status of abortions. I would believe that for many people “legal” means “I won’t go to prison” and by that account yes Germany has legal abortions, even though technically they are… “not punished” is not the right term. I’m still not sure I actually understand what “the offence is not realised” actually means. Someone with a law degree please ELI20.
Declaring at-will abortions straight-up legal probably won’t fly as the constitutional court has quite good arguments against that, what should absolutely be possible is to, in very clear terms, say that the state does not rule on the legality of the abortion: The constitutional court never said that at-will abortions can’t be legal in specific cases, it said that there cannot be a general judgement that at-will abortions are legal in all cases: It always depends on how the rights of pregnant woman vs. fetus balance out in a particular case. You can’t have a court decide on the specific cases though as that’d be a grave impingement of the right to privacy, so it’s left to the woman.
tl;dr: To square that circle the state would say “Is your abortion legal, or just not punished? How would I know, ask your conscience”.
Oh and just for completeness’ sake that’s all about at-will abortions, abortions for medical or criminological reasons are always legal because, in essence, self-defence.
And lastly: I don’t think it’s the right construction site. How about we make sure that states actually fulfil their duty to have abortions actually available, which is something with actual practical impact, not just shuffling around legalese. Make sure there’s gynecologists performing them and so on. Looking specifically at you, Bavaria.