Hacker News Reader

Comment by schroeding | Hacker News Reader

No no no! Don't trust the "advertisement" translation of the NYT, this is german law legalese!

"Werbung" does mean (a promoting) advertisement, but "Werbung" in the sense of the law can also mean any mention of something at all if you perform the same something, e.g. you are a doc and peform abortions => if you mention abortions (the word alone is already enough!), it's technically "Werbung" in the sense of the law.

View on HN

Thanks for the clarification. Anyway I still wonder if this law is not a pandora box.

It is information about accessing a medical procedure. It isnt as if millions of women are suddenly going to realize that abortions exist and rush out to get them who otherwise would not. It just might make things a little simpler for those who were already looking for the proceedure. Women dont make such life choices according to convenience.

The proposal was a bit more complex to care for the outcome you are probably worrying about. They extended another law that forbids misleading advertisement for pharmaceuticals and medical procedures to also cover abortions.

The situation before the change was that everyone could publish any information's , true or false, about abortions except doctors and clinics. Now misleading information's are prohibited and doctors are alowed to inform about abortions and publicise that they perform the procedure.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com