The Bundestag has decided to lift the controversial advertising ban on abortions. A large majority of MPs voted in plenary on Friday in favor of the government’s bill to delete the relevant section 219a of the criminal code. The Union and AfD factions voted against it, and there were no abstentions.

Paragraph 219a has so far ruled that abortion may not be advertised – but in the past, it has repeatedly led to doctors not being able to provide detailed information about abortion without risking criminal prosecution. That should change now. The doctors are granted a right to information in the approved government draft.

Decisions are being withheld

In addition to the deletion of Section 219a, the Bundestag resolution provides for judgments against doctors that have been made since October 3, 1990, based on the paragraph to be annulled. This applies to the Gießen general practitioner Kristina Hänel, who was convicted in 2017 based on Section 219a and has been fighting for the abolition of the paragraph for years. She sat with other doctors on Friday in the Bundestag in the visitors’ gallery.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) described the previous regulation as “absurd and outdated”. Every conviction of doctors is “one conviction too many,” said Buschmann. “Today is a great day,” said Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (B90/The Greens). “Women’s health and self-determination – these are human rights,” Paus emphasized that the criminal liability of abortions must also be discussed in general.

Expansion of the Controlled Substances Act

Union and AfD expressed outrage at the abolition of the law. MPs from both parliamentary groups have repeatedly emphasized that women can already obtain detailed information about abortions and that the rights of unborn life should not be neglected.

To ensure that “offensive” and inappropriate advertising for abortions remains prohibited in the future, the approved government draft provides for the so-called Medicines Advertising Act to be expanded. For example, abortions without a connection to an illness would also be covered by the law, which previously regulated misleading advertising of medical products in other areas.

The law still has to be formally passed by the Bundesrat, but it can come into force without the consent of the Länderkammer.