Joint oral statement to the CEDAW Committee

German law and policy on access to reproductive health care continue to contravene the CEDAW Convention. Doctors of the World and the German Alliance for Choice make the following recommendations for urgent law and policy revisions in three areas, among others:

• First, remove legal barriers to access health care for migrant women: Since 2016, unemployed EU citizens have by law no entitlement to cost coverage of healthcare, even in emergencies and when giving birth. Also, § 87 – the duty to report undocumented migrants to immigration authorities – still keeps undocumented migrant women from accessing necessary health services, including ante-natal care. This leads to suffering, health emergencies and deaths among migrant women. Migration control is no reason to deny the right to access healthcare.
• Second, abortion seekers are denied reproductive self-determination as the number of abortion providers is shrinking and regional service provision gaps are growing. The government must decriminalize abortion and work with the federal states to ensure access to and cost coverage for quality abortion information, counseling and services throughout the country and for all women (including LBTIQ persons and undocumented migrant women*) and eliminate abortion stigma and access barriers, including mandatory counselling and waiting period requirements.
• Third, heeding research on unmet contraceptive need, the government must make modern contraception accessible, affordable and available for all persons with contraceptive needs by ensuring that cost no longer constitutes a barrier.