The European Court of Human Rights, which consistently has ruled in favor of abortion rights, now has decided that governments can forbid governments from describing abortion as a “holocaust.”
The ruling, the AP reported, came in a case brought by the German government against pro-life activist Klaus Guenter Annen.
The government had forbidden him from referring to abortions performed by various abortionists as “aggravated murder” and a “holocaust.”
But a panel of ECHR judges determined those statements “might also have incited hatred and aggression.”
They admitted it was censorship, but they endorsed it as “necessary in a democratic society.”
The court, based in Strasbourg, France, decides issues that come from European Union countries.
Courthouse News reported Annen “used his website to complaint (sic) abortion providers in his neighborhood committed ‘aggravated murder’ each time they performed a procedure – and compared the procedures the doctors performed to the Holocaust.”
The government’s injunctions came after abortionists demanded his speech be restricted.
He distributed leaflets in his neighborhood that stated: “Near you: unlawful abortions” and “Are you silent about the aggravated murder of our children?”
Courthouse News reported the European Court of Human Rights court “noted the legality of abortion in Germany is nebulous: while not technically legal, it’s also not a crime to perform one if you’re a licensed medical professional and if the person desiring the procedure has gone through state-mandated counseling and the three-day waiting period.”
The court determined describing the procedures as aggravated murder technically was not correct.
The court also told him to pay damages to an abortionist after he described the medical practice as a “babycaust.”
