ZAGREB, March 8, 2019 – On the occasion of International Women’s Day, members of the Women’s Network Croatia staged a protest outside Government House, demanding the right to a safe, accessible and free abortion in all hospitals.
A dozen women protesters arrived at St. Mark’s Square carrying banners with messages such as “Master of her own body”, “Free anesthesia”, “Accessible and free abortion in all hospitals”, saying that women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies and that the Church must not interfere in that right. The protesters then handed in a list with their demands to government officials.
“In a secular state the Church cannot interfere in the woman’s right to decide whether or not to have children. Women in our country must not and do not want to be incubators that will have children on command,” said Neva Tolle of the Autonomous Women’s House and the Women’s Network Croatia.
“The woman is the one to decide about her own body, she knows whether she can afford to have a child, you cannot tell her to live in “premarital purity’ because that, too, is a matter of personal choice,” Tolle said, stressing that women must not be called murderers and calling on the government to define, as soon as possible, a new pregnancy termination law that would be more liberal than the existing one.
She also said that the Women’s Network would submit its own bill on pregnancy termination.
Tolle condemned a statement made by Health Minister Milan Kujundžić, who reportedly told a woman reporter that she should pray as prayer never hurt anyone, calling on him to step down.
Tolle also said that there must be no conscientious objectors in hospitals that were funded with taxpayers’ money, mentioning as a positive example the University Hospital Centre Rijeka, which, she claimed, did not hire gynaecologists who were conscientious objectors.
More news on the abortion issue in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
