In the debate about the criminal law regulation of the termination of unwanted pregnancy and using abortion pills in UAE. Two events can be remembered this year. In paragraph 218 StGB in the penal code in 1871 and the protest action “We have aborted!” In 1971, in which more than 300 women in the STERN announced that they had terminated unwanted pregnancy abortion pills in UAE. The social and (legal) political discussion about abortion is currently in full swing again.
Conflicting basic positions
When it comes to the question of abortion. There are opposing basic positions that make a regulatory situation that is acceptable to everyone appear hopeless. The explosiveness of the topic results from the special sensitivity of the spheres of life that affect it. In it, existential dimensions of being human such as the body, procreation, pregnancy abortion pills in UAE, and birth, and the associated ethical, legal and medical issues intersect. State demographic interests have also repeatedly influenced the discourse, albeit subtly (cf. Behrens 2023; Sacksofski 2017). Since the 2000s. There has been increased activity by the fundamental Christian. “life protection” movement, which takes the view that every pregnancy is God’s will and should not be terminated (Sanders/Jentsch/Hansen 2014 ).
Revitalizing the abortion debate
The discussion was started again by the court case of the Gießen doctor Kristina Hänel, who was convicted because information on her website was classified as advertising for abortion ( District Court Gießen, the ruling of November 25th, 2017, Az. 507 Ds 501 Js 15031 /15 and Gießen Regional Court, a judgment of October 12, 2018, case number 4 Ns 406 Js 15031/15; Process reflections at Hänel 2019; Lembke 2017). The case is now before the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) for a decision. Paragraph 219a of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes advertising for an abortion, has now been revised so that it now allows public information to be given that doctors perform abortions (the “whether” of an abortion). However, it is still criminally relevant injustice to provide information about the termination procedure (the “how”). The clear signal to women and persons of childbearing potential remains that abortion of unwanted pregnancy abortion pills in UAE will not be tolerated by the legal system and will remain illegal.
Are Healthcare Centers resulting in Criminalization?
The criminalization of abortion leaves a critical care situation, which makes it difficult for women to access medical information and makes it difficult for them to exercise their right to self-determination under Art. 2 Para. 1 GG and their right to self-determination, which derives from the right to physical integrity (Art 2 Paragraph 2 GG) can be derived or hindered. The criminal law regulation also means that abortion is taboo in the medical profession and in medical training. There are neither guidelines nor medical standards nor a possibility to freely choose the method of termination. This supply gap revealing insofar as it points to the core of the problem of the regulation of abortion:
Woman as womb
How is the current regulation on the termination of unwanted pregnancy and abortion pills in UAE designed? what constitutional conception, and what perspective can be shown.? The location of paragraph 218 in the 16th section of the Criminal Code. (“offenses against life”) based on the constitutional conception of an obligation to carry out unintentionally pregnant women. The BVerfG in its two abortion decisions of 1975 (BVerfGE 39, 1) and 1993 (BVerfGE 88, 203) developed. The court decided here that the embryo represents a legal interest that must be granted state protection, including that of the mother. The woman’s right to self-determination has to take a back seat to this, which can also be enforced by means of criminal law.
Judgment
The image of the woman as the womb is inscribed in the judgments. In this way, women are not addressed as responsible bearers of fundamental rights. Who make autonomous life decisions and can dispose of their bodies. But who must be encouraged by the state to fulfill their “natural” obligation to be mothers?