Photo: APMirela Čavajda's termination of pregnancy in Croatia was approved by the second-instance commission. This case exposed the problem of women's reproductive rights, which in this country have been under political-ideological pressure for years, among other things. And while everyone is hunting for some political and social positions, the victims are again women
After a heated debate, the Croatian Parliament on Friday voted against the proposed law on the medical procedure for termination of pregnancy, on the proposal of the Croatian Social Democrats (SDP). At today's session, the conclusion that the Government should prepare and pass a law within six months, respecting the decision of the local Constitutional Court, was also rejected.
The SDP submitted a bill that would imply that abortion in Croatia should be "legal, safe, accessible, high-quality and free, and that women have the right to freely decide on the birth of children." From the opposition SDP during the debate that the proposal provides "the right to choose and freedom of choice and nothing more."
For the deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the proposal of the Social Democrats is "shameful, inappropriate, low-quality and unprofessional" and "sets termination of pregnancy not as an exception, but as a rule."
The issue of abortion came to the center of political and ideological discussions again due to the case of Mirela Čavajda, a woman who was refused an abortion by three major hospitals in Zagreb, citing "objection of conscience".
And although the medical reports confirmed that it was "severe disability and low quality of life of the fetus, and that it is expected to die in the womb and in the early neonatal age", one of the hospitals announced that "they have neither experts nor equipment to perform feticide, and that they have not been educated for the said procedure". However, it quickly became clear that the problem lies in the fact that doctors do not want to perform the procedure due to the appeal of "conscientious objection".
The Ministry of Health announced last week that "every woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy after ten weeks" if there is a medical justification for it. Even so, the statement of the relevant minister, Vili Beroš, was problematic because he said that he had discussed the case of Mirela Chavajda with several dozen gynecologists who believed that the child would have survived the birth.
The expert commission of the Clinical and Hospital Center in Zagreb came to the conclusion that "treatment of the child after childbirth should be attempted." After a lot of pressure from the public and several protests in support of Mirela Čavajda, the second-level commission nevertheless gave the green light for termination of pregnancy in four Zagreb hospitals.
This case is just the latest in a series that exposed the problem of women's reproductive rights in Croatia, which have been under pressure for years. On the one hand, political-ideological because doctors refuse to perform abortions with "conscientious objection" for religious reasons.
Mirjana Kučer from the feminist non-governmental organization Domine tells the "Vremena" portal that the "conscientious objection" was introduced by the government of the left coalition led by the SDP The Law on Medicine in 2003. He adds that 19 years later in Zagreb and Split, it is almost impossible to find gynecologists in public institutions who do not invoke "conscientious objection".
"For illustration, in the KBC in Split, 34 of the 32 gynecologists allegedly refuse to perform abortions." "We don't have data on how many of them refuse to perform medically assisted fertilization or prescribe contraception for now," says Kucer.
Kučer says that the flood of "conscientious objections" starts after 2013 and 2014, when Croatia introduced the Law on Same-Sex Partnerships. According to her, with the strengthening of conservative influences and the influence of the medical Catholic society, Croatian society has reached an absurd situation in which women live in an atmosphere of fear and stigma.
"Abortion or medical termination of pregnancy is permitted by law, but in practice it is inaccessible to most women." And we have the absurd situation that, for example, the number of abortions on request dropped probably below 2000 in a year (in the early 90s, it was over 36), and the rate of contraceptive use did not increase, nor was sex education introduced in schools," emphasizes Kucer and adds that "conscientious objection" thus became another instrument in the perpetration of violence against women.
She hopes that the case of Mirela Čavajda, which started an avalanche and only luckily did not turn into something much worse for the life and health of the woman, will lead to a change in the situation "in which everyone is hunting for some political and social positions, and whose victims are again women ".
SP/HRT/ Index.hr / Bulletin.org
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