The German government has reached a compromise on liberalising the country’s abortion law. Health minister Jens Spahn of the Christian Democrats (CDU) will revise the controversial Article 219a which bans advertising of abortion services. The government will now publish a list of doctors offering abortion and expand training in the procedure. This follows a bitter row between the CDU and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners.
In recent years Germany’s abortion rate has declined significantly, with the annual number of abortions dropping from 135,000 in 2001 to under 100,000 in 2016. The rate is low by European standards, around half that in France, at least partly due to stricter laws including the advertising ban.
