View of the Bundestag plenary hall during the session. /image alliance, Kay Nietfeld
Berlin – Pregnant women will in future be better protected against harassment on the sidewalks in front of counselling centres, doctors’ surgeries and hospitals. The Bundestag today decided to amend the Pregnancy Dispute Law. In a roll-call vote, 381 members of parliament voted in favour of the bill, while 171 rejected it.
Protests by abortion opponents are increasingly taking place in front of counseling centers and facilities where abortions are performed, as indicated in the justification for the law. Both pregnant women and specialist staff are sometimes targeted in attacks against their will.
Under the bill, it will now be prohibited to intentionally hinder the entry of pregnant women into facilities by creating an obstacle.
It is also forbidden to impose one’s own opinion on pregnant women about continuing the pregnancy “against their apparent will”, to put them under considerable pressure or to influence them with “statements of untrue facts”.
This applies to “noticeable behavior” within a 100-meter area around the entrance area of counseling centers and facilities where abortions are performed.
The law also aims to protect the staff of these facilities: in the future, it will be prohibited to “knowingly prevent” them from providing information about abortions or from performing abortions.
Violations of the now prohibited harassment and obstruction constitute an administrative offence and are subject to a fine of up to 5,000 euros.
Sidewalk harassment has been happening everywhere for several years, SPD parliamentary secretary Katja Mast (SPD) said in the Bundestag. These issues cannot be solved with the existing regulatory legislation. “There is only one side that can be taken in this conflict – and that is the side of the women affected,” Mast emphasized. “We are regulating this today with our law.”
CDU MP Bettina Margarethe Wiesmann, however, denied that harassment on the sidewalks exists. “What they describe as a problem does not actually exist.” A “complete ban mile” around the premises is therefore disproportionate.
According to Wiesmann, there are only vigils, but these could be regulated with existing laws. The CDU politician accused the traffic light coalition of “shifting the coordinates to the detriment of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly” with the change in the law.
The Right to Life for All (ALfA) campaign spoke in a statement about the “establishment of censorship zones”. Doctors for Life calls the law a “massive interference in the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression and assembly”.
The Family Ministry’s bill still needs to be discussed in the Federal Council. It does not need approval there – however, the state chamber can appeal to the joint mediation committee of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
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