§ 219 a STGB: Simply wrong

also listen to the "Audiatur. et altera" other side) is principle of Roman law that should also be observed in journalism, especially in reporting in reputable medium such as the Deutsches Ärzteblatt. In the article about the general practitioner Khristina Hänel from Giessen, who was sentenced to fine for violating Section 219a of the Criminal Code, this principle is not observed. The fact that the Deutsches Ärzteblatt is not alone with this reporting - the various magazines from Hamburg and also other weekly magazines report tendentiously - does not really make it any better.

The colleague Hänel is quoted extensively and invokes real right to information for women of abortion. She takes the view: "You cannot advertise an abortion, because the decision to do so arises from an inner need - it is very carefully considered." In this absolute, as the undersigned knows from personal experience, this is simply wrong. Regardless of this, the article in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt as well as in large number of publications in the lay press refers to the right to information and the right of women to self-determination. Not single reference is made to the right to life of the unborn child, the right that presupposes the exercise of all other rights.

The 68th General Assembly of the World Medical Association in Chicago in October 2017 passed new version of the Geneva Declaration. An official German translation has been available since December 4th and was also published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Here it says: “I will maintain the highest respect for human life.” The fact that embryos are human life should be indisputable regardless of religious and political convictions. It would have done well for Deutsches Ärzteblatt to also name the arguments for maintaining Section 219 of the so-called anti-abortionists. Especially since one could not resist (like Hamburg journal) to point out the alleged origin of the paragraph during the time of National Socialism. A very double-edged sword, if you know the attitude towards eugenetics and other forms of unsolicited human life at this time.