Mariana
Harder-Kühnel
Contergan
Foundation
German
Bundestag, June 18, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/166, pp. 20796-20797
[Mariana Harder-Kühnel is an Alternative für
Deutschland Bundestag member from the western German state of Hessen. She is a
lawyer and here responds to a government proposal concerning the foundation set
up to support those harmed by the Contergan drug.]
Right
honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
The
Contergan scandal was one of the largest pharmaceutical scandals in the history
of the Federal Republic. Contergan was sold by the millions to pregnant women.
In newborns, it lead to an accumulation of severe malformations in limbs and
organs. Countless stillbirths trace back to Contergan. Here, a crime against humanity
was committed.
Some
2,600 of those harmed by Contergan presently still live in Germany. It is a
matter of people who deserve our particular respect and our particular care. We
rejoice that each one of them exists. Despite the hurdles encountered every day
by those harmed by Contergan, frequently they are happy people, people who make
other people happy, and each one of them is an argument for life and an
argument against the mass manslaughter being driven forward in ever more blatant ways by the apologists
of abortion.
Corinna Rüffer (Greens): You are
making a false debate!
Many
political groups wish to legalize pregnancy termination up to the ninth month,
which is nothing other than child murder.
Alexander Ulrich (Linke): Wrong
topic!
Many
demand lifting the ban on advertising for pregnancy termination, while at the
same time, ostensibly for health reasons, they get excited over tobacco and
alcohol ads,
Ingrid Pahlman (Greens): Contergan
foundation law!
as if
smoking a cigarette was worse than an aborted child.
And
naturally these milieus also want to further loosen the abortion law which,
before all, brings into play the handicapped children as an issue.
Sören Pellman (Linke): It was your
delegation that has made precisely
that the topic!
This
crowd thereby unwittingly admits that, for them, the handicapped are only
second-class people. We reject this culture of death. It is simply wrong and
ought to be abhorred.
Corinna Rüffer (Greens): You haven’t
the faintest idea!
Franziska Brantner (Greens): The
topic, please!
Four
things are characteristic of every socialist human experiment: The destruction
of private property, the destruction of tradition, the destruction of religion
and the destruction of the family.
Anke Domscheit-Berg (Linke): Gender
mainstreaming!
The
destruction of all of this necessarily ends in poverty, loss of orientation,
loss of value and ultimately in death. 100,000 aborted children per year
indicate how far creeping socialism has already progressed in this country.
Franziska Brantner (Greens): The orders
of business! The topic, please!
It
is desired to build a new world in which the old world is done away with. The
culture of a people is discerned in how it deals with death, in how it deals with
its unborn children and in how it deals with its handicapped people.
Michaela Noll (CDU/CSU): In your speech is discerned
how you deal with Contergan children! That is a lack of respect!
It
is our duty to treat everyone well.
For
understandable reasons, it is seldom that we praise the work of the Federal
government. We however approve the draft law here introduced because it is
right on the facts.
Corinna Rüffer (Greens): Yes, and
what are the facts in your view?
It
is good if the Federal means already granted are flowing to the medically
competent centers. These centers make possible an improved counseling and
treatment of people harmed by Contergan. And it is right that in the draft law
the foreseen, justified claims of these people are no longer disallowed. Since
they have a life full of hurdles. Let’s not put any more in the way.
Many
thanks.
Alexander Ulrich (Linke): Wrong
topic!
[Translated by Todd Martin]
