50 years after the former Yugoslavia protected abortion rights, that legacy is under threat

By Darko Bandic And Jovana Gec, The Associated Press
Mar 27, 2024

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — With vigils outside clinics, marches drawing thousands and groups of men kneeling to pray in public squares, religious and neo-conservative groups have been ramping up pressure to ban abortions in staunchly Catholic Croatia.

The fierce debate has fueled divisions in the European Union nation of about 3.9 million people where abortion remains legal but access to the procedure is often denied, sending many women to neighboring Slovenia to end a pregnancy.

The movement is in stark contrast to Croatia’s recent past, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia, a Communist-run country that protected abortion rights in its constitution 50 years ago.

Continued: https://halifax.citynews.ca/2024/03/27/50-years-after-the-former-yugoslavia-protected-abortion-rights-that-legacy-is-under-threat/


Yugoslavia Pioneered Abortion Rights in Constitution Long Before France

The inclusion of women’s right to abortion in France’s constitution is significant and welcome – but it’s not quite the ‘pioneering’ move it’s being called.

Tanja Ignjatovic, Belgrade BIRN
March 8, 2024

The recent decision of the French parliament to include the right to abortion in the constitution has been met with emotion by women and feminist activists. Although France legalised abortion back in 1975, it was believed that a constitutional provision would make this right irreversible. It was even called a “revolutionary move”, with France being hailed as the “first country in the world to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution”, thus becoming a “pioneer in guaranteeing freedoms related to abortion”.

In the current era, the decision of the French parliament is undoubtedly significant. It is mentioned that it is a reaction to the 2022 decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling, which had guaranteed the right to abortion for all women up to the 24th week of pregnancy since 1973. Following this, several federal states either banned or significantly restricted access to abortion. This served as a reminder to us all that, once achieved, women’s rights (in any area) are not inviolable and irreversible.

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2024/03/08/yugoslavia-pioneered-abortion-rights-in-constitution-long-before-france/


Serbia Activists Suspect Plan to Curb Abortion

23 Dec 16, Balkan Insight
by Milivoje Pantovic

Serbia’s Demography Minister has denied plans to set up a special body advising women against abortion, but rights activists still suspect a hidden agenda to curb women’s rights.

Serbian civil rights activists have raised their voices against the possible formation of a special body, that could include priests, that would advise women on abortions, after Serbia's Demography Minister, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, hinted at such a plan in an interview. Later she said she had been misunderstood.

“Activities by which women would be forced to go to consultation, in which even a priests were included, are surely not undertaken for the benefit of the women,” the project coordinator of the Belgrade-based NGO, Women's Autonomous Center, Tanja Ignjatovic, said.

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Source: Balkan Insight