Renewed conflict has erupted in Germany over plans to liberalize the country's relatively restrictive laws on abortion by Western standards ahead of the publication of recommendations from a government commission.
News magazine Der Spiegel has reported online that the commission of experts would recommend allowing abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, while the opposition conservative and Christian parties intend to oppose reform. The report is to be published on Monday.
Under current law, abortion is a criminal offence, unless the woman concerned has undergone consultation and it takes place within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Thorsten Frei, parliamentary leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), cautioned against opening the lines of conflict on the issue following a compromise reached in the 1990s following German reunification. Abortion laws were more restrictive in West Germany than in communist East Germany.
Renewed debate was superfluous, given the other problems facing the ruling centre-left coalition, he said, pointing to an economic crisis and increasing crime rates. "It would be fundamentally wrong to provoke further social conflict," Frei said on Tuesday.
He predicted that if the coalition were to adopt the proposals, constitutional challenges would automatically follow.
According to Der Spiegel, the commission will report that "the basic illegality of pregnancy termination in the initial stages of pregnancy is unsustainable." It will note that current provisions in the German criminal code would not stand up to constitutional, international law or European law scrutiny.
But it also says that abortion should remain banned once a foetus is independently viable. According to the report, the commission will set the limit in the 22nd week of pregnancy following the start of the last menstruation.