The number of abortions decreased by 3.5 percent to about 120,000 last year. 97 percent of reported abortions were performed according to the current counseling rules, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Wednesday. Medical or criminological indications were only given as reasons for abortion in less than three percent of cases, he said.
According to the statistics, the number of abortions among under-18s fell by an above-average 5.5 percent to around 6,600 cases. Most abortions take place in the group of women between 18 and 34 years of age, with almost three quarters (71 percent); 16 percent of abortions took place among 35- to 39-year-olds. A good 7 percent of the women were 40 years and older.
Mixa criticizes lack of awareness of injustice A dwindling sense of injustice in the abortion ie has been criticized by Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa. Only a minority of young people still know that according to Paragraph 218, abortion is exempt from punishment under certain conditions, but is still illegal. In addition, politicians are beginning to believe that there is only one truth about the right to life of unborn children, namely that there is no truth. This however is a totalitarian, inhuman basic attitude. The bishop called on practicing Christians to put an end to "Catholic cowardice" that is the "fruit of a misunderstood understanding of tolerance". For Catholics, any proximity to the practice of abortion, which is tolerated by the state, is forbidden. It is not enough to complain about the general loss of values. Rather, the deficits would have to be named. The equalization of same-sex partnerships with marriage should be called what it is, namely a "total blurring" of facts. Mixa criticized embryonic stem cell research as "cannibalism in disguise". A man should not kill human life in order to heal his own. Research with adult stem cells, on the other hand, is worth considering.
USA as a role model Mixa rated as exemplary a pastoral word of the bishops in the USA, which calls on all Catholic congregants to take a clear stand against abortions. In Germany, Christian politicians like to talk about their religious convictions as "personal religious views" that they do not want to impose on the public. That life begins with the fusion of egg and sperm cell is not a religious view, but a scientific fact. Mixa also cited the USA as a model for the relationship between the church and pro-life organizations. In Germany, unfortunately, both sides were rather critical of each other. But a closer cooperation could undoubtedly increase the thrust.