Be aware that "advertisement" here is in the legalese sense.
I.e. this is less about "ad" advertisements but more about e.g. doctors having flyers better informing about what is possible/legal in the waiting room and similar.
Like before you basically had to "somehow magically know" who could do an abortion as even mentioning it on the doctors (hospitals) website might be counted as advertisement.
> Like before you basically had to "somehow magically know" who could do an abortion
There is nothing magical about this. There are lists for this, from official sites, from NGOs, from health centers. The major difference this law made, was that you were only allowed to passively inform about this stuff. Now it will be allowed to be more actively.
That makes more sense: billboard advertisement would go too far as it would encourage otherwise unwarranted behavior (similar to smoking : if you see someone cool doing it you might consider it, without any prior motivation)
This was a really weird take to begin with. I.e. I feel like the courts were a lot broader in the ways they defined „Werbung“ for abortions than Werbung for other areas.
Still banned in Germany: ads for lawyers, ads for doctors, ads for cigarettes, ads for gambling, and ads for drugs that need a prescription.
When traveling to the US, it always strikes me how different public ads are. The US has more public ads and also much more aggressive ads. An ad for an injury lawyer would be unthinkable in Europa.
In Germany, political TV ads are technically banned, but every party in the running gets allocated a slot after the evening news on the main public channel. This can be pretty funny, as sometimes, even very "amateurish" spots by very small parties end up on national TV.
It's not true that doctors can't advertise, there are just restrictions of the type of advertisement they can do. There are e.g. many online portals that list doctors with their specific services and contain appraisals by customers. It would just not be allowed for the doctor to do such kind of appraisals ("I'm the greatest dentist in Berlin") by themselves.
In any case it's hardly an issue for them as most doctors are fully booked for months, so they rarely need to advertise their services. Companies like Doctolib therefore aim more at optimizing the booking process to e.g. ensure that canceled bookings get backfilled automatically to increase the overall booking rate, though even that is usually not a problem and most doctors overbook their appointments to make sure they stay busy during the day (that's why you often have to wait 30-60 minutes here even if you have an appointment scheduled).
When did this happen? When I was in Munich a few years back there were poster ads for cigarettes everywhere. I remember them being not very subtle about their “smoking is cool” message.
Tobacco ads are generally banned on Radio, TV, Print and the Web with some exceptions. Outdoor advertising is still very much allowed, Germany is the only EU country that allows this.
Btw manufacturers (not the merchants though) are still allowed to hand out free cigarettes.
Ads for cigarettes have been banned in Europe for a long time, thats why there is zero tobacco in Formula 1. In Denmark its now illegal to show the tobacco in the store, it has to be hidden
This isn't the same kind of advertising and isn't comparable. For most drugs (i.e. until now, non-abortificants) there's few restrictions on what information doctors are allowed to display in their offices, for example. Cigarette packaging is still prominently displayed in stores.
In the UK, injury lawyers seem to be allowed (but only those lawyers, I don't recall seeing a general lawyer advert, though I don't think they're explicitly banned). But maybe I just don't watch enough TV.
In fact, they make up a significant percentage of adverts!
Ads for hand weapons? You mean like 9mm pistols and such? Why? That would be pointless for the advertiser (not to mention distasteful). German gun control laws are quite strict:
Owning a gun for self-defence is only allowed in rare cases like security personnel and politicians whose lives are threatened. The normal allowed categories are hunting, sports, and collectors, but even then you need a licence (with a few minor exceptions like flint-lock rifles and flare guns).
> I also haven't seen ads for hand weapons. Are they illegal in Germany, too?
I'm not sure about a ban (I guess there is, though) but since gun ownership is restricted the market is quite small. Outside of narrow targeted ads (say in gun owner magazines) it'd be a waste of money.
The US has more "agressive" ads than Germany, because in Germany exists law against such agressiveness. For instance, you are not allowed to put down a competitor, not even mention their products.
> For instance, you are not allowed to [...] even mention [a competitor's] products.
This is directly refuted by the section of legal code that you linked. The phrasing in there (translated in German) is along the lines of "Mentioning a competitor's product is unfair advertising if [specific catalog of unfair situations]". The list includes things like "comparing products intended for different purposes and functions" or "comparing products by qualities that are not objectively measurable".
I'm not saying that you will not be walking on thin ice if you engage in comparative advertising. In fact, if you target a particularly litigous competitor, you may have a bad time even if you're within your rights, but to say that comparative advertising is flat out illegal is not backed up by the phrasing of the law as presented in your source.
22.4% in 2017, and dropping. Similar to the Netherlands. All measures taken together — public knowledge of the harm smoking causes, banning of advertising and gradual reduction of places you can buy it, age limits, banning of smoking in offices and various public areas — undeniably help.
That's what advertising is, literally, not in the commercial sense where you blast people on TV etc. to convince them they need your product/service.
In the past it wasn't even allowed to advertise on your website that you do abortions, or have more information on it in your waiting room, so patients had to actively ask if you offer it.
To clarify... This is at least partially the aftermath of a lawsuite if I recall correctly.
There was a case where a doctor listed abortions as one of their offerings on their website, and that was seen as an advertisement. [Citation needed, my memory might fail me here]
So "no advertisement" pretty much means "don't tell anyone anywhere beforehand".
And that was seen as non-helpful, especially as abortions are legal in Germany.
> And that was seen as non-helpful, especially as abortions are legal in Germany.
Nope, the criminal code forbids abortion, but doesn't punish it in some circumstance (within some months of pregnancy, after a counselling session and some time for thinking it over etc.)
There are huge debates to make it more legal by turning this around or clearer restricting in criminal code.
§218a lists that it is not a crime under certain circumstances ("Tatbestand des § 218 ist nicht verwirklicht, wenn"), but the heading of that one is "Straflosigkeit", so "no punishment".
IANAL but this reads like it is not a crime under the listed conditions. Which is different from no punishment.
Yes, that's what brought it back into the spotlight. The parties currently in the government all somewhat ran on the promise of overturning this law as a part of a general modernization (the more conservative party, which is now out, blocked a lot of it).
The important part is §218a which declares the situations in which abortion is legal. This is not something like prosecutorial discretion, it's still a matter of law.
Most notable: "The pregnant woman does not incur the penalty specified in section 218 if the termination was performed by a physician after counselling (section 219) and no more than 22 weeks have elapsed since conception"
As a person living in Berlin and helping someone through it recently here. This is plain armchair analysis. Have you ever actually gone through this in Germany???
It's COVERED in public health insurance. Get the letter (from public health insurance), get the family counseling (which is provided by the senate, and unlike what people think, is informative and gives surgical and grief counseling with info sheets), let it sink in for 3 days, then go through it with a gynecologist. It should be completed before 12 weeks.
These are services offered, paid and staffed by the government (even the public health insurers).
To compare it to private "smart shops" in Netherlands is stupid.
It's a little more precise than that. It's illegal but also formally has no penalty for a variety of cases.
Ending the "advertising" ban is a great step forward in letting people actually access doctors' services. Legalization seems unlikely, unfortunately, though the news around Dobbs has at least opened up the discussion again.
People need to realize that “woman who might need an abortion” is not necessarily a healthy 16-18 year old with poor impulse control but is also likely to be a married, working mother of 3 barely keeping up with mortgage payments who wasn’t told that the antibiotic for her sinus infection could make her birth control pills ineffective, or a woman with a dearly wanted pregnancy that is now causing her to bleed and have a weird pain on one side, or a 12-year-old girl who didn’t understand what her big brother’s buddy was doing to her.
Happy to see the country I live in overturning that Nazi law that aimed to produce more Aryan babies in favor of acknowledging that women are rational beings. The counseling restriction is still infantilizing, but at least you have a lot of discretion in which organization you get it from - ProFamilia allows that you have better knowledge of your life than they do and have made your own decision, and will just help you implement it.
I am angry and hurt by the place I'm from and still have most of my family, because a situation that was handled rationally and kindly in Germany (an ectopic pregnancy - no “counseling session” aside from a doctor at the hospital factually advising me of my medical options) would make me hesitant to even go to the emergency room in Texas. No one really knows that they have an ectopic pregnancy until an actual doctor examines them, and the only treatment option is which manner of termination you and the doctor choose. Otherwise, it’s probably a normal miscarriage, which is treated with painkillers and encouragement to try again in a few months in reasonable places, but looks to be a legal risk in Texas.
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I.e. this is less about "ad" advertisements but more about e.g. doctors having flyers better informing about what is possible/legal in the waiting room and similar.
Like before you basically had to "somehow magically know" who could do an abortion as even mentioning it on the doctors (hospitals) website might be counted as advertisement.
There is nothing magical about this. There are lists for this, from official sites, from NGOs, from health centers. The major difference this law made, was that you were only allowed to passively inform about this stuff. Now it will be allowed to be more actively.
When traveling to the US, it always strikes me how different public ads are. The US has more public ads and also much more aggressive ads. An ad for an injury lawyer would be unthinkable in Europa.
https://www.oscepa.org/en/news-a-media/op-eds/the-danish-way...
https://slks.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/dokumenter/medier/rekl...
In any case it's hardly an issue for them as most doctors are fully booked for months, so they rarely need to advertise their services. Companies like Doctolib therefore aim more at optimizing the booking process to e.g. ensure that canceled bookings get backfilled automatically to increase the overall booking rate, though even that is usually not a problem and most doctors overbook their appointments to make sure they stay busy during the day (that's why you often have to wait 30-60 minutes here even if you have an appointment scheduled).
When did this happen? When I was in Munich a few years back there were poster ads for cigarettes everywhere. I remember them being not very subtle about their “smoking is cool” message.
Btw manufacturers (not the merchants though) are still allowed to hand out free cigarettes.
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In fact, they make up a significant percentage of adverts!
But there are ads for military weapons, like https://youtu.be/fTBA5tQsDbE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_control_in_Germany
Owning a gun for self-defence is only allowed in rare cases like security personnel and politicians whose lives are threatened. The normal allowed categories are hunting, sports, and collectors, but even then you need a licence (with a few minor exceptions like flint-lock rifles and flare guns).
I'm not sure about a ban (I guess there is, though) but since gun ownership is restricted the market is quite small. Outside of narrow targeted ads (say in gun owner magazines) it'd be a waste of money.
Not true anymore, in the last years, mostly on private TV channels & internet ads, people are and were being blasted with ads for gambling sites :D
Not anymore, since 1987.
Ads for tobacco seems to be fine though, and ads for vape pens (that actually taunt you into using them) are everywhere
"Law against unfair competition"
Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG)
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__6.html
This is directly refuted by the section of legal code that you linked. The phrasing in there (translated in German) is along the lines of "Mentioning a competitor's product is unfair advertising if [specific catalog of unfair situations]". The list includes things like "comparing products intended for different purposes and functions" or "comparing products by qualities that are not objectively measurable".
I'm not saying that you will not be walking on thin ice if you engage in comparative advertising. In fact, if you target a particularly litigous competitor, you may have a bad time even if you're within your rights, but to say that comparative advertising is flat out illegal is not backed up by the phrasing of the law as presented in your source.
Disclaimer: IANAL. This is not legal advice.
It's not about "advertising" for abortions but about _providing information_ on abortions as a doctor.
In the past it wasn't even allowed to advertise on your website that you do abortions, or have more information on it in your waiting room, so patients had to actively ask if you offer it.
Dead Comment
There was a case where a doctor listed abortions as one of their offerings on their website, and that was seen as an advertisement. [Citation needed, my memory might fail me here]
So "no advertisement" pretty much means "don't tell anyone anywhere beforehand".
And that was seen as non-helpful, especially as abortions are legal in Germany.
Nope, the criminal code forbids abortion, but doesn't punish it in some circumstance (within some months of pregnancy, after a counselling session and some time for thinking it over etc.)
There are huge debates to make it more legal by turning this around or clearer restricting in criminal code.
§218a lists that it is not a crime under certain circumstances ("Tatbestand des § 218 ist nicht verwirklicht, wenn"), but the heading of that one is "Straflosigkeit", so "no punishment".
IANAL but this reads like it is not a crime under the listed conditions. Which is different from no punishment.
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__218.html
Most notable: "The pregnant woman does not incur the penalty specified in section 218 if the termination was performed by a physician after counselling (section 219) and no more than 22 weeks have elapsed since conception"
It's COVERED in public health insurance. Get the letter (from public health insurance), get the family counseling (which is provided by the senate, and unlike what people think, is informative and gives surgical and grief counseling with info sheets), let it sink in for 3 days, then go through it with a gynecologist. It should be completed before 12 weeks.
These are services offered, paid and staffed by the government (even the public health insurers).
To compare it to private "smart shops" in Netherlands is stupid.
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__218a.htmlhttps://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fristenregelung
Ending the "advertising" ban is a great step forward in letting people actually access doctors' services. Legalization seems unlikely, unfortunately, though the news around Dobbs has at least opened up the discussion again.
Happy to see the country I live in overturning that Nazi law that aimed to produce more Aryan babies in favor of acknowledging that women are rational beings. The counseling restriction is still infantilizing, but at least you have a lot of discretion in which organization you get it from - ProFamilia allows that you have better knowledge of your life than they do and have made your own decision, and will just help you implement it.
I am angry and hurt by the place I'm from and still have most of my family, because a situation that was handled rationally and kindly in Germany (an ectopic pregnancy - no “counseling session” aside from a doctor at the hospital factually advising me of my medical options) would make me hesitant to even go to the emergency room in Texas. No one really knows that they have an ectopic pregnancy until an actual doctor examines them, and the only treatment option is which manner of termination you and the doctor choose. Otherwise, it’s probably a normal miscarriage, which is treated with painkillers and encouragement to try again in a few months in reasonable places, but looks to be a legal risk in Texas.
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