Senior figures in Dr Helmut Kohl's government mounted an offensive at the weekend to urge Germany's Catholic Church to continue giving abortion counselling to pregnant women.
German bishops are due to discuss a policy letter today from Pope John Paul in which the Pontiff is believed to express his concerns about the church's involvement in the counselling system laid out by the Kohl government three years ago.
The last thing Dr Kohl wants before September's election is a potentially damaging public debate on an issue that is so sensitive in a country where Catholicism continues to command strong support.
"According to the law, abortion counselling is intended to protect unborn life more than punishment, whose effectiveness is dubious, ever could," said Mr Wolfgang Schauble, parliamentary spokesman for Dr Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU).
According to German law, a woman who wants an abortion must discuss her decision first with a counselling service. She then receives a certificate to confirm she has been counselled and can have the abortion afterwards if she wishes.
The news magazine Der Spiegel said it understood the Pope's letter offered a compromise under which the church could give abortion counselling but would try "as hard as possible" not to give out the abortion certificates.
Around a quarter of Germany's nearly 1,700 abortion counselling clinics are run by the Catholic Church. Approximately 131,000 abortions were carried out in Germany in 1996.
Ms Rita Sussmuth, the CDUaffiliated Speaker of the German Parliament, acknowledged the ambivalence felt by many Germans about the role of abortion counselling.
Mr Alois Gluck, parliamentary chief of Dr Kohl's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), warned of a "rift between church and state" if conservative Catholic elements - led by the Pope - forced the church out of counselling. "That would lead to the bitterest conflict and toughest test that the Catholic Church has faced this century," he was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel.