Personhood in Germany: a Contribution to the Feminist Theory of the State
ABORTION AND WOMEN'S LEGAL PERSONHOOD IN GERMANY: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE FEMINIST THEORY OF THE STATE D.A. JEREM'Y TELMAN* The unified Federal Republic of Germany has one of the world's most complex and confusing laws governing abortion.' Abortion law in the pre- unification Federal Republic ("West Germany") was already quite compli- cated. The unification process gave rise to further complexities as German lawmakers attempted to reconcile the relatively permissive abortion regu- lations of the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany") with West Germany's more restrictive laws. Beginning in 1972, East Germany granted women unrestricted access to abortion in the first trimester, an ap- proach known as the "periodic model."2 In contrast, since 1976, \West Ger- many had allowed abortion only after the pregnant woman, having undergone mandatory counseling, had procured from a medical profes- sional a certificate indicating that there were legitimate grounds for ending the pregnancy, an approach known as the "indications model."3 Under current law, both abortion and attempted abortion are gener- ally prohibited.4 A woman can procure a legal abortion, however, in cer- tain circumstances. First, the woman seeking an abortion must undergo mandatory counseling. The counseling must take place at a recognized * B.A., 1985, Columbia University; Ph.D., 1993, Cornell University;, J.D., 1999, New York University School of Law (expected). While formulating the ideas for this essay, I benefited greatly from conversations with Professors William E. Nelson, Molly Nolan, Sylvia Law, and Dieter Grimm. New York University's Summer Seminar on Legal Scholarship, taught by William E.
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