Zagreb anti-abortion march draws thousands

An anti-abortion rally in central Zagreb drew thousands of civilians on Saturday, according to an AFP journalist, as activists in the staunchly Catholic country warn of a deterioration in women’s reproductive rights.

Thousands of people, including many parents with children, marched in the annual “March for Life,” waving banners with slogans such as “Unborn children — the most endangered minority in Croatia” and “Unborn lives matter, too.”

“We support life, moral values, values given by God,” said one marcher, Maja Ivic, accompanied by her two children.

Another, Sinisa Kubatovic, 52, said he believed that “every human life from conception to natural death should be protected”.

In Croatia, which joined the European Union in 2013, abortion is legal until the 10th week of pregnancy.

After that, a pregnancy can only be terminated if the health of the mother or foetus is in serious danger, or in cases of rape or incest.

The rally on Saturday took place amid public outrage over a case in Croatia where a mother, Mirela Cavajda, was refused an abortion after her child was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in the sixth month of pregnancy.

Doctors said the foetus would either die or, if born, would have serious defects and advised the woman to seek help in neighbouring Slovenia.

But, amid growing public outrage and after an MRI scan of the foetus’s brain showed a deterioration in the situation, a medical commission ruled Wednesday that both medical and legal preconditions for the procedure had been met.

Croatia is supposed to adopt a new abortion law after the country’s top court ruled in 2017 that the current one is outdated.

Rights groups are concerned that this will pave the way for even more restrictions.

Nearly 90% of Croatia’s 3.9 million inhabitants are Catholics, and the Church plays an important role in society.