A doctor who published information about her services for women on her website has been fined €6,000 for supposedly breaking German criminal law. The 61-year-old Doctor Kristina Hänel was found guilty by a district court in Gießen on Friday of “advertising” abortion on her website.
Anti-abortion activists reported her because on the list of services she offers, Hänel includes “family planning, sex counselling — and abortions”. A single word. They pointed to Paragraph 219a of the German criminal code, which states that anyone who publicly “offers, announces [or] advertises” abortion services is to be punished with up to two years in jail or a fine.
“The lawmakers do not want abortion to be talked about in public as if it is a normal thing,” the judge said in her ruling.
SOURCES: DPA/The Local, 24 November 2017 ; DW, 24 November 2017 ; PHOTO
