Overview

• At the Deutscher Ärztetag in Leipzig, delegates overwhelmingly approved a Bundesärztekammer resolution to take first-trimester terminations out of Paragraph 218.
• The proposal keeps the existing requirement that women undergo state-mandated counseling and a waiting period before an abortion.
• Advocates say removing abortions from the criminal code will enhance legal certainty for physicians and combat stigma around reproductive care.
• Prior reform attempts by the SPD and Greens collapsed in the Bundestag before the February election and the current CDU/CSU-SPD coalition has no plans to revisit Paragraph 218.
• Denmark and Norway will allow abortions up to 18 weeks on June 1, reflecting a wider European shift toward more liberal abortion laws.