DATE / 7 OCTOBER 2020
On 28 September, in honour of International Safe Abortion Day, Humanists International co-sponsored a joint statement at the UN on ongoing threats to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in light of COVID-19.
The statement was delivered during the General Debate of the 45th session of the Human Rights Council and was supported and signed by a total of 354 organizations and 643 individuals.
States are ignoring their duties to ensure abortion access during COVID-19
July 06th, 2020
by: Katarina Panić
The right to abortion become one of the top issues during the campaign that precedes the parliamentary election in Croatia, scheduled for July 5. Abortion is legal up to the tenth week in the youngest EU member state. Yet, it is less available because of the cost, the social stigma and medical staff's right to refuse to provide them over the reasons of conscience.
Croatia's Constitutional Court ruled three years ago that abortion cannot be prohibited by law. Now, some rightists offer a solution for that as well – to abolish the Constitutional Court if it guarantees the right to abortion, including even raped women.
Croatian women show the middle finger to abortion remarks
By News from Elsewhere... ...as found by BBC Monitoring
24 June 2020
Croatian politicians were left in no doubt about the strength of feeling on the subject of abortion in the country, after remarks in pre-election debates prompted a backlash visualised by perhaps the most defiant gestures of all - the middle finger.
Miroslav Skoro of the Homeland Movement and Goran Jandrokovic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, both right-of-centre political forces, agreed on the issue in a TV programme ahead of the parliamentary election in July.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-53165446
Croatia ex-president gives middle finger to anti-abortion politicians
June 20, 2020
ZAGREB: Croatia´s female ex-president on Friday became the latest woman to give the middle finger to several conservative politicians for their anti-abortion statements during campaigning for next month´s parliamentary election.
Many Croatian actresses, journalists and other female public figures have taken part in the campaign which has seen women posting pictures on social media of themselves symbolically raising their middle fingers.
Election Campaigners’ Attacks on Abortion Draw Condemnation in Croatia
Responding to condemnations of abortion in the election campaign, women’s rights activists and a government minister have called them “unacceptable” and “barbaric”.
Anja Vladisavljevic, Zagreb
June 18, 2020
Strong condemnations of abortion – even when accessed by rape victims – by candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for July 5 have drawn an angry reaction from supporters of women’s right to choose.
In a video debate on Wednesday, organised by the daily Vecernji list, Goran Jandrokovic, from the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, and the nationalist singer Miroslav Skoro, leader of the new right-wing Homeland Movement, expressed hostile views to all abortions – both agreeing that “life begins with conception”.
Opposition Seeks Inquiry Commission for Organisations That Dissuade Women from Abortion
By HINA
21 February 2020
ZAGREB, February 21, 2020 - Twenty-two MPs on Friday tabled a proposal to set up an inquiry commission into the financing, work and influence of organisations which consult pregnant women in Croatia in order to prevent quackery and disinformation about abortion.
Independent MP Bojan Glavašević, Sabina Glasovac (SDP) and Vesna Pusić (GLAS) told the press that according to reports in Croatian and foreign media, so-called pregnancy crisis centres were spreading in Europe and Croatia as part of a global coordinated project aimed at disinforming women about their reproductive rights and health as well as introducing additional obstacles to abortion.
Continued: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/41651-abortion
Abortion Wars
Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad? (Photo: EU Scream)
By EU Scream
BRUSSELS, July 21, 2019
33-minute podcast on the topic of abortion under attack: "Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad?" Discusses refusal to treat under “conscientious objection”, the anti-choice movement, how the LGBT community faces the same enemy as the pro-choice movement, also Romania.
Continued: https://euobserver.com/eu-scream/145486
The Abortion Exodus - more Poles and Croats going abroad
By Michael Bird, Lina Vdovii and Blaz Zgaga
BRUSSELS, 16. Jul, 2019
"The fact that I had to terminate the second pregnancy was terribly sad," said Warsaw-based Anna, now 39.
She was in her tenth week, and her doctors advised her to take a test to check for chromosomal abnormality, which discovered Down's Syndrome.
Continued: https://euobserver.com/social/145450
Legal, but... abortion access under threat in Catholic Croatia
March 28, 2019
On paper, abortion has been legal in Croatia for decades. But in practice, it is becoming less available in the largely Catholic country where religious pressure is pushing doctors increasingly to refuse abortions on moral grounds.
"Why are gynaecologists obliged to do abortions? I don't really see a connection," said Boris Ujevic, a doctor at Zagreb's public Holy Spirit Hospital, when asked why he does not offer the procedure.
Continued: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-legal-abortion-access-threat-catholic.html
CROATIA / BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA – Developments on abortion and conscientious objection in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Feb 15, 2019
The cost of an abortion in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) is two times lower than in Croatia. More women from Croatia are consequently deciding to have an abortion in BiH. Even though doctors can claim conscientious objection in both countries, the situation in Croatia is worse as public pressure to refrain from abortion is higher there. The problem in Croatia is worst for women from smaller towns and villages who may find that no one will provide an abortion, forcing them to go to clinics in Sarajevo. Recently, one woman confided in Dr Emina Sarajlija Pavlović that the doctor from the previous clinic she visited attacked her and said “No abortion, you should give birth to that child.”
The 1977 Law on Abortion in BiH is one of the most liberal in Europe, but abortion is still not available to everyone under good conditions in BiH either, leading to the practice of illegal abortions.
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