German Constitutional Court abortion decision, 1975

• This 1975 decision by the FCC was made primarily in response to West Germany's 1974 Abortion Reform Law. The 1974 reform in West Germany legalized abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. As explained in the reasoning of the 1975 decision, The Fifth Statute to Reform the Penal Law of June 18, 1974 determined the guidelines for punishability of abortion in a new way, in that it replaced the provisions of Sections 218 and 220 of the penal code, decriminalizing abortion within the first twelve weeks under certain circumstances. The 1975 Abortion Decision of the FCC set in place a legal framework granting no exceptions for abortion, making any action to kill an unborn child grounds for legal conviction. The president of the FCC during the decision was Ernst Benda. Benda was president of the FCC from 1971 to 1983, when the Abortion Decision of 1975 was made. Benda was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which opposed legalizing abortion. ==Legacy==

The 1975 decision set a precedent for subsequent abortion law reforms in Germany following the 1990 reunification. A primary instance where the abortion decision of 1975 was used as precedent in reunified Germany was the Judgement of 28 May 1993, which again declared abortions illegal and inaccessible. However, this decision, based on Germany's Basic Law, which protected the unborn child's right to life and stated a legal obligation for mothers to carry their babies to term, granted circumstantial exceptions if they were legally/constitutionally sound. The 1975 decision by the FCC provided the legal basis for this future decision. ==References==