SOCIAL POLICY : Wall Still Divides Germany on the Abortion Question

When German border guards stopped their car on the way home from the Netherlands last winter, Kathi K. and her husband assumed they were looking for drugs.

Instead, they pounced upon a sack containing sanitary napkins and a brochure from a Dutch clinic.

“We suspect you have illegally aborted a child,” one of the guards was later quoted as saying. Kathi K. was taken into custody and brought to a Catholic hospital, where she says she was forced to undergo a gynecological examination.

The doctor confirmed that she had had an abortion, and criminal charges were filed against her. If convicted, she could go to prison for up to three years.

The irony of the case, described in the German media, is that Kathi K., whose full name was withheld to protect her privacy, was born in East Germany and had fled west shortly before the anti-Communist revolution.

Had she stayed, she could still obtain a free, legal abortion upon demand. For although the two Germanys have united, their laws concerning abortion have not. In the east, abortion remains a right; in the west, it is a crime, even if the woman leaves the country to obtain one.

The schizophrenic law is the subject of divisive debate in the Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, which has until next spring to agree on a single abortion law for the nation.

Six proposals are under consideration, ranging from a left-wing call for free, unrestricted abortions on demand to a far-right proposal that would outlaw abortions even in the case of rape or incest.

Western Germany now permits abortion if a doctor certifies that it is necessary for medical reasons, or because of rape, severe birth defects or special social need--such as an unwed teen-ager unable to support a child.

About 200,000 western German women obtain legal abortions each year, and another 100,000 are believed to illegally undergo abortions either in more liberal neighboring countries such as the Netherlands or through western doctors willing to perform the procedure secretly.

In the east, where the population is roughly one-fourth that of the west, one in three pregnancies reportedly is aborted. There were about 74,000 reported abortions last year in eastern Germany.

Unlike the United States, however, the emotional issue has drawn relatively little public protest.

The church has issued sharp warnings against legal abortions, with Catholic bishops calling it “child holocaust” and “mass murder.”

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a staunch Catholic, is expected to vote to keep criminal penalties for abortion when the issue is decided.

East vs. West

Western Germans take a more conservative approach to abortion, according to a poll published Sept. 16 by the German news magazine Der Spiegel. Some sample statements, and the percentage of respondents who agree: *

Interrupting a pregnancy should be up to the woman and in no instance punishable by law: Western Germans: 23% Eastern Germans: 43%

Abortion should be permitted only for medical reasons or in the case of bad social circumstances. Western Germans: 29% Eastern Germans: 15%

Abortion should be allowed only if the woman’s life is in danger. Western Germans: 13% Eastern Germans: 4%

* The poll was taken in August by the Emnid Institute. 2,000 people were surveyed in western Germany, 1,000 in eastern. No margin of error given.