Abortion from the legal viewpoint for the physician
Hiersche, H.D.
Der Gynakologe 15(2): 72-79
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-5994 PMID: 7117911 Document Number: 189954
On February 2, 1975 the Federal Constitutional Court gave the indications for abortion. But the regulations are often misunderstood and are often contravened by mistake. Hence the following explanations are for the assistance of physicians. The sections discussed are sec. 218 (abortion), 218a (indications for abortion), 218b (abortion without advising the woman), 219 (abortion without a physician's order), 219a (wrongful physician's order), 219b (soliciting abortion), 219c (transporting the instruments used for abortion), and 219d (definition). The law recognizes only medical indications for abortion: the purely medical indication, the indication of damage to the fetus, the criminological indication, and the indication from extreme emergency. The law states clearly that no one is compelled to perform an abortion, whatever the consequences for the mother and fetus might be. The law provides for stages of notification: 1) the personal physician must provide in writing a well-grounded indication for abortion; 2) in the absence of a purely medical indication, the woman must at least 3 days before rupture request assistance from a social service agency or a physician with appropriate knowledge and skill; 3) the woman must have explained to her all aspects of abortion, not only the purely medical, but also the arguments of various kinds against it; and 4) the physician who undertakes to do the abortion is responsible for ensuring that all provisions of the law have been satisfied. The law provides that abortion may be done only in a hospital, i.e., a place where special arrangements for it may be made; it cannot be done on an outpatient basis.