BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s cabinet on Wednesday approved legislation that will do away with a Nazi-era law forbidding doctors from providing information about abortions.
Doctors in Germany are allowed to say they offer termination of pregnancies but are not allowed to provide any further information on such procedures.
Critics have said the law makes it too difficult for women to access information about which procedures are available and who provides them.
“It is an untenable situation that doctors who perform terminations of pregnancies, and therefore are best-placed to provide factual information, must fear prosecution under current legislation if they provide information,” justice minister Marco Buschmann said in a statement.
“That isn’t appropriate in this day and age,” he added.
The new government laid out its plans to eliminate the law in the coalition agreement signed in November.
Technically, abortion is illegal altogether in Germany. However, it is allowed under certain circumstances, and the procedure must be performed within 12 weeks of conception.
Anne Spiegel, Germany’s minister for women’s issues, said on Wednesday that the government would set up a commission to discuss further issues of reproductive self-determination.
“Self-determined family planning is a human right. Germany is obligated to protect and enforce this human right,” she said.
(Reporting by Holger Hanse; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Miranda Murray)
