. NMT04-T1078
Volume IV · Page 1078
| Interruption of pregnancy of Eastern
female workers. Subject: In cooperation with the offices concerned, the Reich Health Leader has decreed in his Order No. 4/43, dated 11 March 1943, that in the case of Eastern female workers, pregnancy may be interrupted if the pregnant woman so desires. Concerning the request of the Eastern female worker, the officer for expert opinion for abortion is the locally competent medical office. The office for expert opinion is bound in its decision by the consent of the deputy of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism: when his consent has been granted the abortion is authorized. In this connection I decree the following: 1. The consent for abortion of Eastern female workers on the part of the offices of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism is valid herewith as retroactively granted in the cases in which the father was a man of foreign race (not Germanic). In these cases, the office for expert opinion will, therefore, not obtain the consent of the Higher SS and Police Leader as Deputy of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism, but may order the abortion on its own authority. 2. Obtaining the consent of the Higher SS and Police Leader as Deputy of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism is, according to this, necessary only in the cases in which it is maintained or is probable that the father was a German or a member of an ethnically related (Germanic) race. The Higher SS and Police Leaders will subsequently be informed of these cases, together with the statement of the personal histories of the Eastern female worker and the father, month of pregnancy, race and citizenship of the father, as well as place of residence of both, or the address of the place of employment. On the basis of this declaration, a racial examination of the pregnant woman and the father is to be carried out by the race and settlement leader. If it is found by this racial examination that a racially valuable result is to be expected, then the consent for abortion is to be denied. If on the basis of the racial examination the offspring is expected not to be racially valuable, the consent for abortion is to be granted. The racial examination is to be carried out rapidly. Further directives concerning the carrying out of the racial examination and the treatment of the cases in which the consent for abortion is to be denied are issued by the Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police, or by the Race and Settlement Main Office SS. 3. Criminal prosecution of abortion undertaken according to this procedure in the case of Eastern female workers is of course, suspended. |
