by Artemis
Protest at the Evangelical Lippstadt Hospital. Photo: DW Tik Tok page.
On Aug. 8 in Lippstadt, Germany, 2,000 people attended a demonstration organized by Green party politician Sarah Gonschorek and gynecologist Joachim Volz. As chief physician at the clinic at the Evangelical Lippstadt Hospital, Volz had performed abortions for 13 years. Following a recent merger with a Catholic hospital, it is now one of many in Germany and the U.S. that stop providing most abortions after coming under Catholic Church management. Volz is suing the hospital for violating his right to provide care and has collected over 200,000 signatures on a petition for the government to decriminalize abortion. Demonstrators’ signs read, “Heaven, hell, hypocrisy! Church, set women free!” “My Body, My Choice, My Uterus, My Fucking Business.” Organizers state most Germans favor reproductive rights and most anti-abortion activism comes from American religious Right organizations. Only five anti-abortion counterdemonstrators attended the demonstration.
***
In London, Ontario, Canada, on July 24, a Superior Court Justice found five men not guilty of sexually assaulting the complainant, “E.M.,” in a hotel room in 2018. The five were Canadian world junior hockey-team players. The judge claimed E.M.’s testimony was inconsistent and she had consented to sexual acts. Her supporters point out she was being asked to remember a traumatic event from seven years ago. She endured the usual stress of reporting a sexual assault and bringing it to court. She also spent nine days in the witness stand being mocked by defense lawyers. Like many survivors, she stated she consented from fear and to avoid further harm. Outside the courtroom, supporters held signs reading “We Believe Survivors.”
The trial has provoked public discussion on reforming the Canadian justice system to better handle sexual assault cases. In 2023, a previous case inspired new laws such as requiring training for new judges on sexual assault. E.M.’s lawyer wants confidential trauma-informed legal representation available to all victims. Many criminal justice experts say solutions have worked well in other countries. E.M. and one of the defendants stated they would have preferred this approach. Restorative justice is a set of practices that involve victims, offenders, and communities in finding solutions. It can bring in trained professionals to guide the complainants and accused through a dispute-resolution process.
***
Utopia56 logo. Image: Camsurmer, CC BY-SA 4.0
On Aug. 12, police removed about 350 migrants, mostly women and children, from a makeshift encampment outside the City Hall in Paris, France. There were 90 children, including 30 under the age of three and 11 unaccompanied minors. The encampment was a protest called on Aug. 5 by Utopia56, “a civic mobilization association that helps exiled people and people on the streets, unconditionally and without distinction of legal status.” The protest called attention to the lack of emergency accommodations. Nathan Lequeux, a Utopia56 coordinator, stated, “We will not move until a lasting solution is found.” He said there has been a steep increase in women and families seeking the organization’s services. Police are increasingly aggressive in evicting encampments, sometimes without an eviction order as required by law.