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Kristina Hänel (2019): »rehabilitated« by the change in the law?
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
The Giessen doctor Kristina Hänel, who was convicted because of the so-called advertising ban for abortions, which was still valid at the time, failed at the Federal Constitutional Court. Germany's highest court did not accept her constitutional complaint for decision, it announced.
It justified the decision with the fact that last summer the Bundestag had repealed paragraph 219a of the criminal code, including the judgments based on it.
There is no continuing need for legal protection – neither in the specific case nor from the point of view of a risk of repetition, decided the Second Chamber of the Second Senate in Karlsruhe. (Ref. 2 BvR 390/21). Hänel was "rehabilitated" by the change in the law.
Long fight for deletion of 219a
A new conviction was ruled out because of the deletion of the paragraph. In principle, there is no general interest in having the constitutionality of old law clarified.
Hänel had fought for years for the abolition of the paragraph. In June last year, a large majority in the Bundestag voted for the deletion. The parliamentary groups of the Union and AfD voted against, there were no abstentions.
It was about the fact that in the past, doctors were repeatedly unable to provide detailed information about abortions without risking prosecution. For example, the Giessen District Court had sentenced Hänel to pay a fine for illegal advertising of abortions. With the reform of the law, physicians have now been granted a right to information.
Hänel had also stated that she had not yet been reimbursed for the fine paid. It is true that the doctor's money should actually have been reimbursed "ex officio" without being asked, the Federal Constitutional Court emphasized. However, it is reasonable to expect her to go to court for this if necessary.
bbr/dpa/AFP