Pregnancy Termination Act

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Preamble: “Equal rights for women in education and work, marriage and the family require that women be able to decide for themselves about the pregnancy and its term. The realization of this right is inextricably linked with the growing responsibility of the socialist state and of all its citizens for the continuous improvement of the health protection of women, for the promotion of the family and the love of children. "
Preamble to the law in the form of its promulgation in the GDR Law Gazette

The Law on the termination of pregnancy was one of the People's Chamber , the parliament of the Democratic German Republic (GDR), decreed on March 9, 1972 law regulating the abortion . When it was passed, a fundamental revision of the legal situation in the form of a time limit solution was introduced in the GDR for abortion in a departure from the previously applicable indication-based regulation . According to this, women were given the right to decide on their own responsibility to terminate a pregnancy within twelve weeks of the start of a pregnancy . According to the law, the physician involved was obliged to advise the pregnant woman about the medical significance of the intervention and about the future use of contraceptive methods and means.

In the GDR, the law met with criticism and rejection from the churches of both denominations as well as from parts of the medical profession, but there was no public discussion of any significant extent. Until the political change in 1989, however , the resolution on the law was the only vote in the history of the People's Chamber that was not unanimous, as there were 14 votes against and eight abstentions. The legal situation created by the law in the GDR, with which a period regulation for the termination of pregnancy came into force for the first time in German legal history, also influenced the debate on the amendment of § 218 StGB and the resulting legislative initiatives in the Federal Republic of Germany as well the new regulation of § 218 StGB after the German reunification .

Origin and content

Legal development

The legal basis for abortion in Germany until 1943 was the Reich Criminal Code, passed in 1871, with Sections 218–220, the threat of which was softened in a new version adopted in 1926. In a decision of March 11, 1927, the Reichsgericht had also added a strict medical indication as an exception formulated under judicial law to the provisions of the Criminal Code, which represented a general ban on abortion without defined indications . According to this judgment, the presence of a “present danger for the pregnant woman that could not be eliminated in any other way” was considered a justification in the form of a supra-legal emergency . In the Third Reich , the conception of the normative basis of the prohibition of the termination of pregnancy changed fundamentally, since the killing of the developing or unborn life was no longer the main reason. Rather, deprivation of property from the father and the state and, from 1943 onwards, “impairment of the vitality of the German people” was the basis of criminal liability. In addition, with the exception of the medical indication, the strict prohibition only applied to pregnancies that were desirable in terms of race hygiene . In the case of parents who were considered “hereditary and inferior” in the sense of National Socialist ideology, a eugenic indication was also allowed and even advocated. From 1943, the death penalty was applied to abortion if “the vitality of the German people was continuously impaired”. For other abortion cases, the prison sentence was reintroduced for up to 15 years. However, it could only be imposed on the pregnant woman in particularly severe cases that were not defined in the law; third parties could be imprisoned in less severe cases.

After the end of the Second World War, this legal situation in the individual countries of the Soviet occupation zone was replaced between 1945 and 1948 by new regulations with expanded indication models. Due to the consequences of the war, these contained an ethical indication for pregnancy after rape or sexual abuse , for example in Thuringia through the "Law on Interruption of Pregnancy Caused by a Moral Crime" of August 29, 1945, and with the exception of the Saxony Law Anhalt also a social indication in the present or impending social crisis, in Thuringia, for example by the "law on the termination of pregnancy" "of 18 December 1947. in Mecklenburg in 1947, the embryopathic indication introduced. in addition, the sentence from the previously About a year after the founding of the GDR, the law on mother and child protection and women's rights came into force, with Section 11 introducing a uniform regulation of the indications for an abortion became. A Schw According to Section 11, termination of employment was only permitted after medical or embryopathic indication , "if carrying the child to term seriously jeopardizes the life or health of the pregnant woman or if one of the parents is burdened with a serious hereditary disease" and the approval of a commission made up of doctors , Representatives of the organs of the health service and the Democratic Women's Federation .

The aim of the law on mother and child protection and women's rights was, in addition to promoting equal rights for women and increasing their employment, in particular to promote births as part of population policy . The legal situation that came into force in the GDR from 1950 onwards led in the following years on the one hand to one of the lowest rates of approved abortions in the world, on the other hand to an increase in the number of illegal abortions and to women having abortions until the construction of the Berlin Wall on doctors evade in West Berlin . In March 1965, an internal circular from the Ministry of Health extended the application of Section 11 to include an ethical and a social indication, without changing the underlying legal text. The other cases of termination of pregnancy remained forbidden and punishable, the criminal provisions of the state laws initially continued to apply and were replaced in 1968 by Sections 153–155 of the GDR Criminal Code .

Ludwig Mecklinger, Health Minister of the GDR from 1971 to 1989, during the Volkskammer meeting on March 9, 1972 on the law on the interruption of pregnancy

With the law on the interruption of pregnancy passed in 1972, the indication-based legal situation was then completely replaced by a period regulation. Even after the law was passed and its promulgation in the GDR Law Gazette on March 15, 1972, Sections 153–155 of the StGB-GDR remained in full force unchanged, since an interruption of pregnancy was criminally inadmissible if it “contravened the statutory provisions " was made. Unlike in Section 218 of the German Criminal Code , the concrete definition of the requirements for admissibility was not part of the provisions of the StGB-GDR, but was made through the corresponding laws of 1950 and 1972, respectively. The reasons for the new regulation from 1972 were as before in the expansion of the indications in 1965, especially the high number of unreported cases of illegal abortions, the increasing demands for self-determination by women and the rejuvenation and increase in the proportion of women among doctors in the GDR. In addition, a “race” with the reform efforts of the social-liberal coalition in the Federal Republic of Germany may have played a role in choosing the timing . Both in the legal historical context and in an international comparison, the recognition of the decision to abortion as a woman's right was a novelty; a comparable wording can only be found in the regulation adopted in Denmark one year later .

With the Unification Agreement of August 31, 1990, Section 1, Paragraph 1, Section 4, Paragraph 2 and Section 5 of the Law on the Interruption of Pregnancy were repealed. The law ceased to be in force in 1993 after the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on the nationwide reorganization of the legal situation on abortion.

Provisions

According to the preamble of the law on the interruption of pregnancy, which consisted of five paragraphs , the possibility to decide on the pregnancy and its term oneself was considered as a requirement of "equal rights for women in education and work, marriage and family" and thus as Contribution to achieving this goal within the framework of women's and family policy in the GDR . According to Section 1, Paragraph 1, women were “given the right to decide on the interruption of a pregnancy on their own responsibility in addition to the existing possibilities of contraception” in order to determine the number, the time and the chronological order of births . Accordingly, according to Section 1 (2), a pregnant woman was entitled to have the pregnancy terminated within twelve weeks of the start of the pregnancy “through a medical intervention in an obstetric-gynecological facility”. According to Section 1 (3), the physician involved was obliged to “inform the woman about the medical significance of the operation and to advise her on the future use of contraceptive methods and means”.

The termination of a pregnancy that was longer than twelve weeks was subject to the decision of a specialist medical commission in accordance with Section 2 and was only permitted if there was a risk to the woman's life or if other serious circumstances existed. The provisions of Section 3 governed the inadmissibility of the termination of pregnancy in the event of the possibility of serious health-endangering or life-threatening complications due to a woman's disease and in the event that the last termination was less than six months ago. According to Section 4 (1), the preparation, implementation and follow-up treatment of a permissible termination of pregnancy were "treated as equivalent to illness under labor and insurance law". In addition, Section 4 (2), when the law was passed, made the dispensing of medically prescribed contraceptives free of charge to women with social insurance. The provisions on the entry into force of the law and on the effects on other laws, in particular the lifting of the previously existing restrictions on the permissibility of the termination of pregnancy, were contained in Section 5.

perception

Reactions in the GDR

The joint decision of the Council of Ministers of the GDR and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED on the planned law, announced on December 23, 1971 , came unexpectedly, and there were hardly any public discussions before and afterwards. Representatives of both denominations of the churches in the GDR expressed their rejection even before the law was passed. In a pastoral letter read from all pulpits on January 9, 1972 , the Catholic Church emphasized that it is the task of every state to protect developing life in particular, that freedom of conscience must apply to medical personnel and that other legislation in the GDR of the Situation of pregnant women and children would take care of the situation in a comprehensive manner, so that an emergency justifying an abortion could hardly exist. The eight evangelical bishops in the GDR brought their “deepest” in a “Word of the Bishops of the Evangelical Regional Churches in the GDR” published a few days later, which was addressed in particular to the individual members of the churches and “to all who want to hear it” Dismay ”and their rejection of the proposed law. Protest also came from free church groups such as the Seventh-day Adventists , whose community published a corresponding statement and had it disseminated in their congregations. There was also criticism from doctors and members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), but this did not reach the general public. Helmut Kraatz , one of the most important gynecologists in the GDR, commented positively on the new regulation on the one hand, as it "took the floor off the bungling", but on the other hand described the termination of pregnancy as the "most unpleasant method of family planning for women and gynecologists".

View of the plenum of the People's Chamber during the session on March 9, 1972

The draft of the law on the interruption of pregnancy arose in joint deliberations of the constitutional and legal committee, the committee for health care and the committee for labor and social policy of the Volkskammer. In the vote in the People's Chamber on March 9, 1972, which was done by show of hands, after speeches by the People's Chamber President Gerald Götting , the Minister for Health Care Ludwig Mecklinger and the Deputy Hildegard Heine from the Committee for Health Care, it came for the first and only time before the political change 1989 to a non-unanimous result; 14 members of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany - around a quarter of the parliamentary group members - voted against the law and eight members abstained. The proportion of votes against the total number of MPs in the People's Chamber, which was elected via a standard list of the National Front with a fixed distribution of seats, was less than three percent. The inconsistent opinions within the CDU on the proposed law as well as the planned deviating voting behavior of the relevant MPs were known to the leadership of the party around its chairman Gerald Götting in advance and to Albert Norden , a member of the Politburo of the SED Central Committee, about a month before the SED's decision was made -Guide has been notified. Accordingly, Health Minister Ludwig Mecklinger, a member of the SED, also addressed the concerns in church circles in his explanations on the grounds for the law.

Previously, there had only been a few dissenting votes in a few local parliaments in the GDR, such as the demolition of the ruins of the Potsdam Garrison Church and the demolition of the Leipzig University Church in 1968 . The CDU did not issue an official statement on the law or the behavior of its MPs; Church officials of both denominations welcomed the non-unanimous result. In the reporting of the New Germany , as the nationwide central organ of the SED, the most important daily newspaper in the GDR, the outcome of the vote was described as an “absolute majority” and emphasized that “the rights and dignity of women are fully guaranteed”. The SED used the result for propaganda purposes to upgrade the People's Chamber and as evidence of the freedom that the members of parliament would have in casting their votes, especially in all other unanimous resolutions. In the period that followed, the state authorities tolerated the refusal to carry out abortions in the existing hospitals in the GDR under Catholic or Protestant sponsorship. The Catholic Hospital in Heiligenstadt in the Catholic region of Eichsfeld had to hand over its gynecological department to a state clinic, since otherwise there would have been no possibility of an abortion in the city. An organized right-to-life movement did not exist in the GDR, and corresponding protest activities remained marginal and limited to individuals, especially Christians in social and medical professions.

Reception in the Federal Republic of Germany

Negotiation by the Federal Constitutional Court of the deadline solution decided by the social-liberal coalition, 1974

The law on the interruption of pregnancy and in particular the result of the vote in the People's Chamber also met with great interest in the West German media landscape. For example, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported on the day after the vote under the heading “Dead silence in the People's Chamber. For the first time no votes in the plenary hall ”. Comments on the importance of the vote varied. While it was described in the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a “remarkable process”, which might have to rectify the image of the People's Chamber as the “approval machine of the SED” that prevails in the Federal Republic, the FAZ suggested that the voting behavior of the dissenting CDU MPs after consultation with the SED had taken place. The Evangelical Press Service saw the admission of the no votes as a sign that the GDR would approve the abortion, but not promote it.

The new version of the legal basis for abortion in the GDR also put the social-liberal coalition under Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt and Justice Minister Gerhard Jahn under pressure in their efforts to reform Section 218 of the Criminal Code. This resulted in the adoption of a time limit solution comparable to the new legal situation in the GDR in June 1974 instead of the originally planned limited indication regulation. However, following a constitutional complaint by members of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group and five state governments in February of the following year, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the new regulation unconstitutional and replaced it in June 1976 by a model with four different indications, in addition to those already permitted Exceptions the social indication was newly included. After German reunification, the law on education, contraception, family planning and counseling of July 27, 1992 resulted in a period regulation with compulsory counseling and indications as a nationwide new regulation of the legal provisions on abortion, which was a compromise between the period solution in the GDR and the indication model in the Federal Republic depicted. This amendment came into force in a modified form after a complaint by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1993, and finally in 1995 a new regulation was introduced by the legislature.

Effects

The number of approved abortions in the GDR, which was 860 in 1962, three years before the extension of the indication regulation from 1950, rose immediately after the introduction of the deadline solution to around 119,000 in 1972, but resumed by 1976 about 83,000 from. In contrast, before the new regulation, there were 70 to 80 women per year who died from improperly performed abortions. Immediately after the law was passed, the hospitals in the GDR were often overwhelmed by inadequate equipment. In the Charité women's clinic in Berlin , for example, the procedure was initially carried out in several shifts. In later years almost all hospitals in the GDR had special departments for carrying out abortions. The increase in the number of abortions caused by the new regulation, as well as the free delivery of contraceptive agents introduced at the same time, led to a decrease in the population in the GDR that lasted until the end of the 1970s and had a corresponding effect on the age structure in the years that followed.

As a result of this development, from the early 1970s onwards, in some cases at the same time as the law on the interruption of pregnancy, a number of birth - promoting social policy measures were adopted, which included in particular regulations to improve the situation of families with children and of working mothers. These included, for example, subsidized rents for families with low incomes, reduced weekly working hours with full wages and higher vacation entitlement for women with at least three children, the extension of paid leave after a birth from two to three months, and the introduction of an interest-free loan for young married couples in the amount of 5000 marks with a long term, on the repayment of which at the birth of children discounts were granted. From the beginning of the 1980s, the number of births was again higher than the number of deaths; In 1990 around 74,000 abortions were performed. Because the birth rate was higher than in the Federal Republic of Germany, the number of abortions in relation to the pregnancies carried out in both countries at the end of the 1980s was comparable to around three births per abortion.

Demonstration in Berlin against Section 218 of the Federal German Criminal Code in April 1990

After the political change in the GDR, the "right to self-determined pregnancy" was included in the draft of the round table for a new GDR constitution. For the newly formed Independent Women's Association , which ran in the Volkskammer elections in March 1990 in an electoral alliance with the Green Party in the GDR , maintaining the applicable deadline was a determining issue. During the election campaign, the CDU advertised on the one hand with the negative attitude of its 14 members of parliament in the 1972 vote, but on the other hand also stated in its election program that "abortion bans and threats of punishment ... are no help in life". With the exception of the newly founded German Social Union (DSU), politicians of all parties represented in the newly elected People's Chamber, including the CDU, supported the retention of the deadline regulation, which was also included as a demand in the coalition agreement of the newly formed government from the CDU-led electoral alliance Allianz for Germany , the SPD and the liberal League of Free Democrats was accepted. Kurt Wünsche from the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD), who served as GDR Justice Minister under Prime Minister Hans Modrow and Lothar de Maizière from January to August 1990 , suggested the inclusion of the right to abortion in a newly adopted all-German constitution or the Continuation of different legal situations.

A controversial public debate on the long-term consequences of the law of 1972 sparked in February 2008 Wolfgang Böhmer out, then premier of Saxony-Anhalt and the GDR era chief doctor of gynecology in a Protestant hospital in Wittenberg by the news magazine Focus , which exists in the GDR Brought legal situation to abortions in connection with a "frivolous attitude to developing life" and infanticide in the new federal states . His statements on the connection between abortions in the GDR and the frequency of infanticide in eastern Germany, which he relativized a few days later in an interview in the newspaper Die Welt , were largely rejected by politicians from all parties. With regard to his comments on the GDR legislation on abortion, there were also differentiated comments from psychiatrists and political scientists, as well as the approval of some women concerned, church representatives and life rights initiatives such as the CDU organization Christian Democrats for Life .

literature

  • Kirsten Thietz: End of the matter of course? The abolition of § 218 in the GDR. Documents. Basis Druck Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-86-163013-3 .
  • G58: Pregnancy Termination Act. 1972. In: Matthias Judt (Ed.): GDR history in documents. Resolutions, reports, internal materials and everyday testimonies. Series: Research on GDR society. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-86-153142-9 , pp. 210/211.
  • Michael Schwartz : "More liberal than ours?" Two deadlines and the consequences. Reforms of the criminal abortion law in Germany. In: Udo Wengst, Hermann Wentker: Double Germany: 40 years of system competition. Series: Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Political Education. Volume 720. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-86-153481-9 , pp. 183-212.

Further publications

  • Christa Mahrad: Abortion in the GDR: Social, ethical and demographic aspects. Series: European University Writings. Series XXXI: Political Science. Volume 111. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-82-040251-9 .

Web links

  • »It was a lonely decision ...« The GDR's »Law on the Interruption of Pregnancy« of March 9, 1972. DRA-Spezial 10/2006 of the German Broadcasting Archive , online (PDF file, approx. 396KB)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quotation § 218: “A woman who kills her fruit in the womb or by abortion, or who allows the killing by another, is punished with imprisonment. Another person who kills a fruit in the womb or through abortion is also punished. The attempt is punishable. Who the designated in para. 2 Indeed, without the consent of the pregnant woman or commercially commits is with prison punished. Likewise, anyone who commercially provides a pregnant woman with a means or tool for aborting the fruit is punished. If there are mitigating circumstances, a prison sentence of no less than three months applies. ”According to: Walter Stoeckel : Textbook of Obstetrics. Eighth unchanged and uncensored edition, Jena 1945.
  2. ^ Günther Kaiser: Criminology: A textbook. Third edition. Hüthig Jehle Rehm, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-81-146096-X , p. 347.
  3. ^ RGSt 61, 242 - I StS 105/26 (decision of the Reichsgericht dated March 11, 1927).
  4. ↑ a b The problem of abortion in the mirror of history. In: Simone Mantei: No and Yes to Abortion: The Protestant Church in the Reform Debate on Section 218 of the Criminal Code (1970–1976). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-52-555738-8 , pp. 27/28.
  5. ↑ The problem of abortion as reflected in history. In: Simone Mantei: No and Yes to Abortion: The Protestant Church in the Reform Debate on Section 218 of the Criminal Code (1970–1976). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-52-555738-8 , p. 30.
  6. ^ A b Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz: Welfare State in the GDR: Social Policy Developments in the Field of Tension Between Dictatorship and Society 1945 / 49–1989. Series: Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005 ISBN 3-48-657804-9 , p. 73.
  7. ↑ Association of Freedom Jurists (ed.): Law in East and West. Volume 15. Verlag AW Hayn's Erben, Berlin 1972, p. 205.
  8. ↑ Michael Kühne: The minutes of the Church Eastern Conference 1945-1949. Series: Works on Church History: Sources. Volume 9. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-52-555759-0 , pp. 194/195 (footnote 71).
  9. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 192 (see literature).
  10. ^ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz: Welfare State in the GDR: Social Policy Developments in the Field of Tension between Dictatorship and Society 1945 / 49–1989. Series: Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005 ISBN 3-48-657804-9 , p. 74.
  11. ↑ GBl. I, 5/1972, pp. 89/90.
  12. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 197 (see literature).
  13. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 196 (see literature).
  14. ^ A b Marina Calloni: On the cultural relativity of European abortion laws. In: Matthias Kettner (Ed.): Abortion, genetic education and the limits of communicative reason. Campus Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-59-335837-9 , pp. 87-105 (especially p. 88).
  15. ^ Excursus: The unexpected development in the GDR. In: Simone Mantei: No and Yes to Abortion: The Protestant Church in the Reform Debate on Section 218 of the Criminal Code (1970–1976). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-52-555738-8 , pp. 168/169.
  16. ↑ a b c Edith Gindulis: The conflict over abortion: The determining factors of the legislation on abortion in an OECD country comparison. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-53-114119-8 , pp. 116–118.
  17. ^ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz: Welfare State in the GDR: Social Policy Developments in the Field of Tension between Dictatorship and Society 1945 / 49–1989. Series: Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005 ISBN 3-48-657804-9 , p. 76.
  18. ↑ epd documentation. 15/73. Evangelical Press Service, p. 52.
  19. ↑ Manfred Böttcher: The Advent Church in the GDR: A tightrope walk from 1949 to 1990. Advent-Verlag, Lüneburg 2007, ISBN 3-81-501824-2 , p. 163/164.
  20. ^ Matthias David, Andreas D. Ebert : History of the Berlin University Women's Clinics: Structures, people and events in and outside the Charité. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-11-022373-2 , p. 261.
  21. ↑ Kirsten Thietz in: End of the Self-evident? The abolition of § 218 in the GDR. Documents. Berlin 1992, p. 173 (see literature).
  22. ↑ Kirsten Thietz in: End of the Self-evident? The abolition of § 218 in the GDR. Documents. Berlin 1992, p. 177 (see literature).
  23. ↑ Werner Weidenfeld, Karl-Rudolf Korte: Handbook on German Unity, 1949–1989–1999. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-59-336240-6 , p. 181.
  24. ↑ a b c Henrik Eberle: With socialist greetings! Letters, files and absurdities from the GDR. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2007, ISBN 3-40-460580-2 , pp. 81-85.
  25. ↑ a b Ehrhart Neubert: A political duel in Germany: the CDU in the sights of the Stasi. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, ISBN 3-45-128016-7 , p. 187.
  26. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 185 (see literature).
  27. ↑ Right and dignity of women fully guaranteed. 4th meeting of the People's Chamber passed a law to interrupt pregnancy. In: New Germany . Edition of March 10, 1972, p. 1.
  28. ↑ Werner J. Patzelt, Roland Schirmer: The People's Chamber of the GDR. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-53-113609-7 , p. 91.
  29. ↑ a b Cornelia Ropers: Catholic nursing training in the Soviet Zone / GDR and in the transformation process. Series: Studies on Church History. Volume 4. LIT Verlag, Münster 2009, ISBN 3-64-310756-0 , p. 101 (footnote 147).
  30. ↑ a b Michi Knecht: Between Religion, Biology and Politics: A cultural anthropological analysis of the life protection movement. LIT Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-82-587007-3 , pp. 161/162.
  31. ↑ a b Peter Jochen Winters: Dead silence in the People's Chamber. For the first time no votes in the plenary hall. in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of March 10, 1972, p. 3.
  32. ↑ Does the conscience stir in the People's Chamber? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . Issued March 10, 1972.
  33. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 186 (see literature).
  34. ↑ a b Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, pp. 189/190 (see literature).
  35. ^ Fifth law on the reform of criminal law of June 18, 1974. Federal Law Gazette I, 1974, p. 1297.
  36. ↑ BVerfGE 39.1. Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of February 25, 1975 (judicial review procedure for the fifth law reforming criminal law of June 18, 1974).
  37. ↑ 15th Criminal Law Amendment Act of May 18, 1976. BGBl. I, 1976, p. 1213.
  38. ↑ Law on Education, Contraception, Family Planning and Advice of July 27, 1992. Federal Law Gazette I, 1992, p. 1398.
  39. ↑ BVerfGE 86,390. Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of August 4, 1992 (interim order in accordance with Section 32 BVerfGG); BVerfGE 88.83. Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of January 25, 1993 (repetition of the interim order); BVerfGE 88.203. Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of May 28, 1993 (standard control procedure for the Pregnancy and Family Assistance Act of July 27, 1992).
  40. ↑ Birger Dölling: Prison between turning point and reunification: criminal policy and prisoner protest in the last year of the GDR. Series: Research on GDR society. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-86-153527-0 , p. 351.
  41. ↑ Michael Schwartz in: Das doppelte Deutschland: 40 years of system competition. Berlin 2008, p. 204 (see literature).
  42. ↑ a b c d e "They are beastly behind the moon". In: Der Spiegel . Edition 20/1990 of May 14, 1990, pp. 70-87.
  43. ^ Matthias David, Andreas D. Ebert: History of the Berlin University Women's Clinics: structures, people and events in and outside the Charite. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-11-022373-2 , p. 80.
  44. ^ Heinz Vortmann: Income from money in the GDR from 1955 to the beginning of the eighties. Functional and personal distribution, income generation and income policy. Series: Contributions to structural research by the German Institute for Economic Research. Booklet 85.Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-05952-2 , p. 32 (age structure), p. 33 (population development).
  45. ↑ A practical gift. In a new social program - higher pensions, lower rents - East Berlin is also promoting having children. Since abortion has been legal in the GDR, the state has feared for offspring. In: Der Spiegel . Edition of May 22, 1972, pp. 38/39.
  46. ↑ Guido Zöllner: Abortion - through the ages. GRIN Verlag, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 3-638-95471-4 , p. 15.
  47. ↑ a b c d Margrit Gerste: Law is good, practice is bad. In: The time . Edition 20/1990 of May 11, 1990, pp. 89/90.
  48. ↑ Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Marianne Schulz, Jan Wielgohs: From illegality to parliament: career and concepts of the new citizens' movements. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-86-153037-6 , p. 271.
  49. ↑ Monika Maron: Last access to the woman. In: Der Spiegel . Edition 20/1990 of May 14, 1990, pp. 90-92.
  50. ↑ Prime Minister Böhmer makes the GDR mentality responsible for infanticide In: Der Spiegel . Issued February 24, 2008.
  51. ↑ Thomas Schmid: "Abortion was part of family planning in the GDR" Interview with Wolfgang Böhmer. In: The world . Issued February 27, 2008.
  52. ^ Protest storm against Boehmers baby murder theories In: Der Spiegel . Issued February 24, 2008.
  53. ↑ Ulrike Plewnia, Göran Schattauer, Alexander Wendt: Abortions: Most normal thing in the world. Statistics and experts support Wolfgang Boehmer's thesis about less respect for life in the East. In: Focus . Edition 10/2008 of March 3, 2008.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on June 11, 2011 in this version .