Some clinics not only refuse to provide medical services, but also to provide information about them: almost every fourth hospital contacted refused any answer on the subject, even after repeated inquiries from CORRECTIV.Lokal and numerous local and regional media. The clinic Dortmund argued with “trade secrets”. The press office wrote: “In the tough competition with church hospitals” one cannot afford to comment on this “emotional debate” in public.
35 percent of the clinics that offer terminations according to the advisory rule did not disclose any information on the methods used – also because of the Paragraphs 219a of the Criminal Code, which currently prohibits doctors from “advertising” abortions. The federal government wants to abolish the paragraph. The federal cabinet has the deletion has already been decided. Some hospitals said out of fear from anti-abortion militants Not wanting to be publicly associated with abortions.
“The hospitals probably want to say as little as possible about this to the public. It’s such a big problem getting data, it’s completely absurd,” says researcher Daphne Hahn. It is the stigmatization of abortions that makes good medical care more difficult. “You don’t just need any offer, you need a good one.”
In Germany it is already difficult to get factual information at all. The definition of abortion under Section 218 is grouped under “crimes against life” in the Criminal Code, along with murder and manslaughter. If the abortion is not exempt from a penalty according to the three indications, there can be up to three years in prison. Unsurprisingly, many prefer not to talk about the subject.
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