The initiative today submitted additional documents to the Constitutional Court and expects that it will soon rule to ban abortion in Croatia.
Members of the ProLife initiative gathered today in front of the Constitutional Court of Croatia to officially supplement their original constitutional complaint from 1991 regarding the Law on Healthcare Measures for Exercising the Right to Freely Decide on Giving Birth, which is a law which in Croatia gives women a right to abortion. The initiative hopes that its 25 years old complaint will soon be accepted by the Court and that abortion in Croatia will be banned, reports Večernji List December 12, 2016.
Speakers were Katarina Kovačević, president of the Croatian Movement for Life and Family; lawyer Mario Vojvodić, a representative of the applicant; Vice John Batarelo, president of the Vigilare Foundation; and Luka Popov, vice-president of the Foundation. Kovačević called on all women, regardless of their religion or other beliefs, to fight for life.
The official supplement contains extended bioethical, legal and medical analysis made by allegedly reputable experts contained on 119 pages. However, the names of the experts who participated in the analysis have not been revealed. The initiative expects that the Constitutional Court will make a decision that will declare the current law unconstitutional, on the basis of Article 21 of the Constitution which says that every human being has the right to life.
“Today ends the first phase of the fight for the unborn child and of our efforts to make this law conform with the values of the Croatian Constitution. The second phase is expert lobbying of parliamentarians, and then we will move on providing specific assistance to women who cannot give birth for economic reasons”, said Vice Batarelo.
Financing of the new study was made possible, according to the gathered representatives, by donations from people, including the ones from the Croatian diaspora. “Life begins at conception. We do not want to humiliate anyone, but we want to define life”, said Vojvodić. Asked by reporters what will happen with all the women who will be disadvantaged due to their decision, they did not provide a clear answer. The Foundation believes that, despite changes to the law and the prohibition of abortion, women would not be deprived of their rights.
The Vigilare Foundation produced a video for its campaign “I Want to Live” in order to fight for the rights of unborn children. The controversial video caused divided comments, mostly negative ones. The video was viewed more than 30,000 times in three days, but all comments were quickly deleted and further comments have been banned.
