Demolition doctors are not killers

EGMR rejects abortion opponent Annen

The catholic abortion opponent Klaus Günter Annen may not call doctors who make abortions a "murderer". Corresponding injunctions of German courts are lawful and do not violate Annen's right to freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on Thursday, September 20, 2018, in Strasbourg (Az .: 3682/10 and others).

Annen is one of the most prominent abortion opponents in Germany. He operates a homepage on which he also compares legally permissible pregnancy fractions with the Holocaust. Most recently, he had several hundred doctors on suspicion of "advertising" for the abortion, including the Giessen family doctor Kristina Hänel and the gynecologists in Kassel Natascha Nicklaus and Nora Szász, whose lawsuits had caused a stir nationwide.

His homepage used to say: "Perverted doctors murder the unborn children on behalf of the mothers." And: "Pray (...) for the physicians (...) who carry out the MURDER of abortion themselves" (emphasis as in the original).

In February 2007, a doctor obtained an injunction against this from the Karlsruhe district court. The word murder is commonly understood as a serious crime; a termination of pregnancy within the deadline solution is not punishable. An appeal filed by Annen against this was unsuccessful (Order of the Federal Constitutional Court of 2 July 2009, Ref .: 1 BvR 1663/07).

The legal situation in Germany is generally understood to mean that abortions are generally inadmissible, but are not punishable under the deadline solution.

Annen had in 2005 accused another doctor in a leaflet "unlawful abortions", "but the German legislature allowed and not punishable". In 2015, the ECtHR had ruled that this was covered by freedom of expression (Judgment and JurAgentur Report of 26 November 2015, Ref .: 3690/10).

In their new judgment (Az .: 3682/10), the Strasbourg judges complained that Annen had not made these differentiations in his Internet text. Instead, he directed "serious criminal charges" against the doctors. The German courts would therefore have weighted the personal rights of the physician more seriously than the freedom of expression of Annen.

Another cease and desist order of the district court of Karlsruhe had before the ECHR (Az .: 3687/10). In an Annens leaflet it said, "Did you know that Dr. S. abortions, which are illegal according to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court? "Again, this was associated with the term" murder "brought. Here, the ECtHR emphasized that the term "unlawful" was formally correct. In the context read but here also the doctor murder allegations were made.

The third case (Ref .: 9765/10) is about a leaflet that Annen had pushed passers-by and patients in front of a doctor's office. Again, there was talk of illegal abortions. It was also said: "The murder of the people in Auschwitz was unlawful, but the morally degenerate Nazi state had allowed the murder of innocent people and not punishable." Again, the ECtHR confirmed the injunction. For Annen had deliberately put a single doctor on the pillory, also to affect the relationship of trust with the patients.

The fourth case (Az .: 70693/11) was the only one in which the regional court of Karlsruhe awarded the plaintiff doctor damages in addition to a cease and desist order: 10,000 euros. These are statements that were previously accessible from Annen's website through one or two links. Including: "To equate the Babycaus with the Holocaust would mean relativizing the abortion murders today."

Again, the unacceptable murder accusation, said the ECtHR. The Holocaust comparison seriously undermines the reputation of the doctors named on the page. In addition to the injunction, therefore, compensation for damages is also appropriate. mwo / fle