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Paper short abstract

Paradoxical mobilization in abortion politics in Germany: how legal restrictions and strategic selectivities triggered public counteraction by doctors and activists, fostering solidarity and reshaping struggles over reproductive autonomy.

Paper long abstract

In Germany, abortion is regulated in the criminal code and classified as “unlawful, but not punishable” if the pregnant person follows a strictly prescribed procedure, illustrating continuous criminalization. The failed attempt at legal liberalization in February 2025 highlighted the ongoing political contestation surrounding reproductive rights.

Drawing on Bob Jessop’s strategic-relational approach, the paper analyzes how state restrictions produce strategic selectivities that make public resistance by professional actors increasingly likely. It asks under which conditions professional support turns into collective political activation.

Empirically, the paper draws on interviews conducted and analyzed within a grounded theory research framework shortly before the repeal of §219a of the German Criminal Code. Until summer 2022, this paragraph prohibited doctors who perform abortions from informing about their services online. Only through protest by activists and criminally charged doctors did a public awareness of the paradoxical ban on medical information emerge, revealing further contradictions in obtaining a non-punishable abortion.

The paper shows how these developments can, paradoxically, be traced back to the assertive legal invocation of §219a by individual “anti-abortion” actors. The interviewed doctors emphasized the empowering function of their public counteraction, which they saw as unavoidable to draw attention to perceived injustice. The solidarity of feminist activists enabled the considerable scale of public attention. Ultimately, highly restrictive actors contributed to liberalization tendencies in the field of abortion.

The paper provides an empirically grounded perspective on current struggles over reproductive autonomy and demonstrates how resistant practices emerge and become publicly effective under restrictive regulation.