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summer of 1971. In Germany there is a small revolution: "We have an abortion!" Headlines the star on 6 June.
It is a sensation, breaking a taboo - and even a spectacular display. Because the collective commitment in the star is nothing short of a confession of having committed an offense with up to five years in prison to be punished. The public self-display and share the women not only their reputation and possibly their careers at risk. You also risk a multi-year prison sentence. A total of 374 women committed in the star - journalists, housewives, students, secretaries - to have aborted a pregnancy. They demand the complete elimination of Section 218, the abortion punishable by law. Due to the almost invariable criminalization of abortion millions of women are forced to secretly and sometimes under dubious circumstances degrading and medical abortion.
initiated the action by the feminist, Alice Schwarzer. It has a similar campaign a year before seen in France, where women first time by public Self-accusations for the legalization of abortion fight. After the appearance of the star sign within a few weeks, thousands of the appeal against the 218th clause prosecuted they will not. There are just too many. The mass protests led in 1974 to a partial success: The German Bundestag passes the so-called control period. Abortion within the first three months of pregnancy are no longer punishable. But only a year later the Federal Constitutional Court declared this provision to be incompatible with the basic law by which human life is inviolable.
is Over the years, the Section 218 revised several more times. A right to abortion, as the women call it 1971, there is not today. Although a termination within the first three months of pregnancy is not penalized. It is still illegal.
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