Activists are pushing the German government to get rid of the last criminal restrictions on abortion and fully legalize Women's Reproductive Rights.

Although abortions are widely available in Germany - so much so, that women from Poland cross over to seek the sort of healthcare their home country bans.  Section 218a of the German criminal code provides for abortion if it is deemed necessary to protect the health of the woman; if rape led to the pregnancy; or, in the case of 96 percent of abortions carried out in Germany, if the woman undergoes counseling and the termination precedes the twelfth week of pregnancy. 

But it doesn't necessarily decriminalize abortion.  And anyone who terminates a pregnancy can be fined or imprisoned for up to three years, although no one actually prosecutes.

Sarah Thibol, activist with the feminist organization Frauen*Kollektiv in Cologne, says most women are shocked to learn that abortion is technically against the law.  Her group is demanding full decriminalization.

"Someone else has control. We simply don't have the right," Ms. Thibol says.  "We're only allowed if someone says, 'It's okay if you do it now.'  But actually it's not permitted."

The governing Christian Democrats and the far-right Alternative for Germany both oppose any changes to the law.  The Social Democrats, which are part of the coalition, and most of the opposition parties support the proposed changes - which Thibol says should just be a first step.

"The removal is the minimum that needs to happen," she says.  "After that we need to keep fighting for women to have the right to be able to have an abortion without losing their jobs, or being shut out of their communities."