W. German Abortionist Jailed
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MEMMINGEN, West Germany — A gynecologist in West Germany’s predominantly Roman Catholic state of Bavaria was jailed for 2 1/2 years today for performing illegal abortions.
In a trial lasting eight months and dubbed a “witch hunt” by its critics, Horst Theissen, 50, was charged with carrying out at least 79 illegal abortions between 1981 and 1987. He said he knew that he was breaking the law but did so because of his clients’ distressing circumstances.
West German law allows for a pregnancy to be terminated only when a second doctor agrees that it is socially or medically necessary. In rural, strongly Catholic areas of southern Germany, abortion is virtually unobtainable.
The prosecution questioned 79 witnesses on the circumstances of their abortions to establish whether they could have kept the baby or given it up for adoption.
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