As the United States Supreme Court announced the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Germany voted to further liberalise its own abortion laws.
Germany’s parliament has voted to further liberalise the country’s abortion laws, despite significant resistance from conservative and populist parties within the legislature.
The decision coincided with a Supreme Court ruling in the U.S. which found that the country’s constitution did not actually guarantee a right to abortion, overturning the previous “Roe v. Wade” ruling that prevented individual American states from making their own local decisions on the matter.
According to a report by Der Spiegel, the Bundestag voted on Friday to further relax restrictions on abortion laws across the Federal Republic.
Pushed through by the country’s hard-left “traffic light” coalition government, the new measures repeal a ban on certain types of abortion advertising, something that right-leaning parties such as the Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU) and Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) warn will lead to the procedure being trivialised.
“The abolition of the advertising ban is a mistake,” CDU legal policy spokesman Dr. Günter Krings said in a statement posted online, arguing that the abortion law loosening represented an affront to the dignity of the unborn.
Krings went on to criticise the decision to overturn the restriction as an issue to do with the rule of law, arguing that the new measure represented a political annulment of a court judgement.
“This ultimately undermines trust in our rule of law,” he argued, saying that the government’s attempt at justifying the move did not ultimately add up.
While this further liberalisation of abortion laws in Germany no doubt represents a loss for the pro-life movement worldwide, it is no doubt more than offset by the recent seismic win in the United States in the form of Roe v. Wade being overruled.
Originally passed in 1973, the Roe v. Wade ruling found that women had a constitutional right to terminate their own pregnancy, preventing individual American states from banning or severely restricting the procedure.
However, the Supreme Court has now ruled that this initial decision was ultimately lacking, and that no such right to abortion exists within the constitution.
“The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion,” Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote regarding the decision.
“Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return the authority to the people and their elected representatives,” he went on to say.
26 states are now expected to implement significant curbs to the practice.
“This breakthrough is the answer to the prayers of millions and millions of people,” former President Donald Trump said regarding the ruling. “They’ve been praying, and now those prayers have been answered.”
“To the generations of Americans in the pro life movement, as well as countless constitutional conservatives, your boundless love, sacrifice, and devotion has finally been rewarded in full. Congratulations,” he went on to say.