Author Archive

Hannah Voegele (University of Brighton)

Hannah Voegele is a Postgraduate Researcher at the Center for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at the University of Brighton and an alumni of the DPIR. Hannah’s current research focuses on modern relations of property and propriety, (Germany’s) colonial continuities, and feminism's ambiguous histories.

In the context of the U.S. Supreme Court repeal of Roe v. Wade, the struggle for access to abortion and reproductive freedom continues. In Germany, abortion remains a criminal act only granted under specific conditions and requirements. Apart from ethical and legal requirements, abortions are hardly mentioned in most medical curricula. There is a shortage of medical practices that perform abortions, especially in rural areas and if there is no “medical or criminological indication”, the procedure is not covered by health insurance, costing between €300 to €600. §218 of the criminal code that criminalises and regulates abortion is a remnant from the imperial penal code of 1871 (only the GDR legalised abortion in 1972). Radical feminists in Germany were at …