May 12, 2022

Despite secularism, Croatian doctors deny abortion rights

topic:	Abortion
located:	Croatia, Slovenia
editor:	Katarina Panić

The clock was ticking for 39-year-old Mirela Čavajda from Croatia: last month, in her 24th week of pregnancy, doctors discovered severe foetal abnormalities, namely a fast-growing brain tumour. Ever since, she has been trying to receive an abortion. But in a country deeply influenced by the Catholic Church, she has not been able to succeed.

In Croatia’s legislation, the medical situation qualifies her to exercise her right to an abortion, even after ten weeks of pregnancy, due to the fatal condition of the foetus. The delivery would be hazardous both for mother and child, and if the baby survived, it would vegetate instead of living. Nevertheless, all the hospitals she has addressed have refused to perform the abortion, citing the doctors’ right to appeal to their own consciences.

Activists, the political opposition and medical experts have accused the long-ruling conservatives of falling under the church’s influence regarding human rights. 

“The beliefs of the individual physician must remain secondary, and religious communities must not impose their views, which in no way support abortion, on a science-based profession in a secular state,” gynaecologist Jasenka Grujić told local media.

With time running out, Mirela went to neighbouring Slovenia to seek help. She passed all the necessary procedures there too, and the Slovenian medical council approved the abortion, as was announced two days ago. 

Meanwhile, the opposition party in Croatia passed a bill on the medical procedure of termination of pregnancy that the Croatian parliament will consider today. The act that Social Democrats have been trying to give to lawmakers for almost two years proposes that the period in which a woman would be entitled to an abortion be increased from 10 to 12 weeks from conception and that minors aged 16 to 18 can apply for termination of pregnancy without parental consent. 

It would also instate that health insurance entirely cover the costs of abortion, sterilisation and contraception and introduces the obligation that every public hospital provide the abortion -  regardless of appeals to conscience.

Suddenly, on the eve of the parliamentary session, the breaking news overwhelmed Croatia last night. The second-instance medical commission in Croatia allowed the termination of pregnancy for Mirela in four Zagreb hospitals. 

"If she decides on a procedure that is not performed here, she will be provided with treatment abroad at our expense," the health minister Vili Beroš told the media.

Photo by Adhy Savala

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