Hello to you,

I found your article very interesting and have a lot to add.
But first a question: Are you leaning towards basically "no right to abortion" but would still say that including abortion as a criminal offence would be wrong?

Here in Germany it is formulated differently, it is not a "right to abortion", but abortion is punishable in principle and therefore written in the Criminal Code. The punishability is subject to certain exceptions. From the point of view of principle, the law first says that every abortion is in principle a criminal act, but in individual cases it does not count as such. The actually narrow definition in the exceptions becomes a broad gateway in the case of the term "mental distress". It is therefore impossible for another person to determine the emotional distress of someone who has to make a decision that is considered very important for them.

If, on the other hand, one takes into account habits and what one learns in the course of one's life, it does not seem to be the case here in general that people, when they think of abortion, immediately associate it with a punitive act. Never have I heard anyone say, nor have I told the women I learned from that they had had an abortion, that they were about to or at risk of committing a criminal offence. Rather, since my teenage years, I have had the impression that women and society in general are quite taboo-less about it and you don't per se quietly tell someone about an abortion behind a protective hand. Rather, at least women are very open among themselves about this matter and many women I know personally have had one or even several abortions.

This seems to indicate that these women did not necessarily feel the onset of pregnancy in the way that a living being was growing inside them, which they aborted without a profound examination of themselves. It may look that way to the outside world but it may be other within the human.

People also know or suspect, the question of "what is life and when does something begin to be a living being?" cannot be concluded definitively and equally for all people.

The law is incapable of answering philosophical questions, I think.

The German law seems to serve as something that maybe perceived like a kind of silent eminence. It rarely strikes with severity, I think. Which may be because such individual cases rarely occur here in the media public sphere, or tempers don't heat up much about them, it seems to me.

Actually, I think the whole thing is treated with a certain indifference, with a rather modern and less traditional approach, according to which women who have abortions do not seem to have any pronounced religious or profound ethical concerns in this regard. If it were otherwise, the issue would be more taboo or more extremely controversial even among women friends. Rather, I would say that women who have a more superficial relationship with each other are used to judging, but not to asking sensitive questions about ethical concerns that do not immediately call into question the integrity of the other person. The capacity for profound reflection is, I think, generally not very pronounced and I observe a kind of mega-trend within which people fire off emotive opinions on all subjects. If it were otherwise, conversation in this regard would have a cautious, rather caring questioning character.

On the other hand, there is also the phenomenon that women are so afraid of the law that they prefer to obey it, again without having dealt with it sufficiently self-reflectively. Such women may suppress their own distress and prefer to carry a child rather than come into conflict with anyone or the law.

Furthermore, I would also make a connection between contraceptive practice, this pill-taking that is considered perfectly normal, where no woman would ever have expressed in my presence that it was preventing life. I see in this, on the one hand, a certain shopping mentality, an approach that does not even get to the deep questions. On the other hand, it has positively led to women gaining the impression that they can control when and whether they get pregnant. Abortion is just as easy as contraception. In both cases, counselling and a doctor must be consulted.

How heavy guilt and remorse may weigh in the individual women can only be answered by the individual concerned.

We modern humans face immense difficult questions that our ancestors did not have to face for decision. Feasibility opens up huge problems.

These questions are actually unanswerable. The fact that they are on the agenda has to do with the ever-expanding medical and technical possibilities as well as politics, we can all see that.

Punishments actually prevent punishable acts. But whether punishments also promote insights of depth and peacefulness, I dare to doubt in many cases. The punished person may refrain from a punishable act, but one will want to compensate in other ways if one is inwardly unwilling to accept the threatened or executed punishment.

The question, for example, whether it would have been better for some children never to have been born is an unanswerable question. Parenthood can be an enormous maturity boost for people, but for others it is not.

Personally, I can't really say whether I would see myself in the right to accuse another woman of murder who has an abortion. Although I can understand the arguments you make in favour of unborn life. I feel compassion when I imagine a being that is alive. I am rather indifferent or unfeeling when I imagine a heap of cells. I also find the question unanswerable for me personally, as long as I would not be in such a situation myself. Fortunately, I have never had to and I won't have to anymore.

In no case would I be in favour of dictates or absolute solutions or a zero tolerance policy. As I understood you, you wouldn't want that either. Insights cannot be dictated, they can only be learned and accepted by the individual.

To conclude, I find our German law alright and would not want to have it otherwise. It serves a principle but it allows exceptions. The single case then has to be discussed or judged when it lands in court.

Sorry, this got long.

Bye and Greetings.