Religious Crisis and Civic Transformation by Kimba Allie Tichenor

Author:Kimba Allie Tichenor [Tichenor, Kimba Allie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Women, Europe, Germany, Religion, Religion; Politics & State
ISBN: 9781611689709
Google: sc69CwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Published: 2016-05-03T00:44:26+00:00

The Bundestag, the Constitutional Court, and Reaction to the Indikationslösung

On April 26, 1974, the Bundestag passed the Fifth Statute to Reform the Penal Law, endorsing the Fristenlösung. The vote was so close that individual votes had to be tallied for the first time in the Bundestag’s history (247–233). Given the intensity of the debate leading up to the vote, the initial reaction of opponents was relatively mild. The two most outspoken opponents—the Catholic Church and the German Medical Association—expressed only mild regrets about the parliamentary decision. A few Christian opponents, such as the former president of the Evangelical Congress, Heinz Zahrnt, worried that the vehemence of the two churches’ campaign may have been counterproductive—and thus garnered support for the opposition.71

A more likely explanation for the mildness of the response was that opponents of the Fristenlösung knew that for the measure to become law, it required the approval of the Bundesrat, the legislative body that represented the ten German states (Länder) at the federal level. In 1974, representatives of the Christian parties dominated the Bundesrat; opponents thus believed the bill had little chance of becoming law. As expected on May 10, 1974, the Bundesrat rejected the Fristenlösung approved by the Bundestag and called for the mediation committee (Vermittlungsausschuß) to negotiate a compromise. The SPD-FDP coalition government led by Helmut Schmidt now faced a decision. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung explained, “Whether it comes down to an effort at a compromise in the mediation committee or a confrontation essentially depends on how the Schmidt government appraises the issue of abortion, whether it is appropriate to demonstrate flexibility or whether it is an occasion to demonstrate the will of the new government to prevail even against the Bundesrat.”72

To pass the Fristenlösung without Bundesrat approval, supporters needed an absolute majority in the Bundestag, meaning that at least two of the eighteen SPD legislators who previously supported the Indikationslösung had to change their votes. When efforts at compromise with the Bundesrat failed, a new vote on the Fristenlösung was scheduled in the Bundestag for June 15, 1974. With nine of the eighteen SPD supporters of the Indikationslösung switching sides, supporters of the Fristenlösung now had an absolute majority (260–218).73

Catholic opponents reacted vehemently to the new vote. The ZdK president, Bernhard Vogel, declared, “We accept the challenge, as so often in the past, we will tirelessly fight and advocate with all available means, so that the current decision of the German Bundestag is countermanded.”74 Cardinal Döpfner vowed that the Church “never will resign itself” to the Fristenlösung.75

Catholic conservatives had not accepted defeat. On June 21, 1974, Die Zeit reported that Hans Filbinger, a committed Catholic and the prime minister of Baden-Württemberg, announced that his government would file an injunction to prevent the new law from going into effect before the German Constitutional Court could rule on its constitutionality.76 The court granted the injunction; however, it did not recommend reverting to the status quo. Instead, it stipulated that Paragraph 218b and Paragraph 219 of the new statute, which imposed the Indikationslösung for late-term abortions, apply to all abortions.

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