abortion rights and the nazis ...

in 2022 Germany abolished a nazi era abortion law that forbade doctors from providing information about abortions, to expand under the law doctors were allowed to tell their patients they offered termination of pregnancies however weren't allowed to give any further details on the procedure involved; this law increased abortion stigma in german citizens and also discouraged german citizens to get the procedure done.

thirty years after world war 2 when West Germany legalized abortion for up to the first 3 months of pregnancy, the supreme court struck it down as they believed "abortion is an act of killing(toetenshandlung)" and Germany's experience with nazism has led it to highly value life.

Through their eugenics program, the nazi's wanted to be able to implement strict control over reproduction heavily and they sought to control the genetic makeup of the population, under Adolf Hitler the nazi sterilized people from different ethnic groups or disabilities as they didn't hit the supposed "Aryan master race". However, their approach was quite different to contemporary debates surrounding reproductive care...

the nazi's main goal with their controversial and brutal population control policies was to create a homogenized race and they had a strong appreciation for eugenics, a pseudoscientific belief that believed in controlling the "genetic quality" of the population by controlling the population growth of certain groups, abortion policies were therefore heavily influenced by the states ideals of "lebensraum", Aryanization and also differed greatly for different racial groups.

abortion was initially restricted for everyone however later the regime allowed and even encouraged abortion for certain groups, particularly women who were racially "undesirable", all women, especially the racially desirable women were expected to conform to traditional gender roles, focusing on mother-hood and raising good "Aryan" children; racially valued women were encouraged to have more children and abortion care was quite limited for them.

Their laws demonstrated a very selective and coercive approach to reproductive rights and reproductive policies were heavily influenced by the regimes racial and eugenic goals, It's essential to approach discussions about the link between Nazis and abortion with sensitivity, recognizing the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.