ZAGREB, 14 May 2022 - Several thousand people gathered in central Zagreb on Saturday for the 7th Walk for Life, demanding legal protection of unborn children and their families and protection of the right to conscientious objection.

Demonstrators marched through the city centre carrying banners saying "Let's protect the most vulnerable minority in Croatia," "Every human being has the right to live" and "I've noticed that all abortion advocates are already born."

Organisers said that the existing law on pregnancy termination was adopted in 1978 and should be changed to protect unborn children and their families.

"There are members of Parliament who advocate that it should be allowed to put unborn children to death. That's why we think the law needs to be changed and a legal framework established based on science that says that life begins at conception," said Željka Markić, the head of the In the Name of Family NGO.

She said that society should treat all sick persons in the same way, both those born and those unborn, and that every mother should be entitled to psychological assistance and economic support when her child is diagnosed with a serious disease.

"The care of an unborn child requires its mother's love and the support of the family, local community and entire society," said Andreja Duvančić, a member of the Walk for Life organising committee.

Luka Holjevac, a member of the organising committee, said: "This year, too, we give our support to all doctors, nurses and pharmacists who invoke conscientious objection. In that way they do their job and take care of both patients - the mother and child."

This year's Walk for Life takes place in 11 cities across the country. It already took place in Varaždin, Vinkovci and Slavonski Brod, and the next two Saturdays in May and the first two Saturdays in June it will be held in Split, Imotski, Zadar, Ploče, Sisak, Osijek and Rijeka.

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ZAGREB, 7 May 2022 - Two civil society demonstrations were held in the northern city of Varaždin on Saturday - a Walk for Life and a counter-demonstration called Saturday for Freedom.

At the same time, a Walk for Life was also held in the eastern cities of Vinkovci and Slavonski Brod, and the head of the In the Name of Family NGO, Željka Markić, joined the Varaždin march.

"I think it is important that we convey the message that it has been scientifically confirmed that human life begins at conception, that an unborn child's heart starts beating on the 18th day, that a child in the womb feels pain, smiles and swallows. These are all important scientific facts," Markić said. "We should build a society of tolerance and life," she added.

Silvija Svoren, coordinator of the Walk for Life in Varaždin, said that they support life from birth to natural death. "That means that we are always for life. That is our focus. We fight for the unborn child and its mother, for the family."

The Saturday for Freedom gathering was organised by the local youth association V.U.K., whose president Lea Labaš said they had gathered to protect women's and human rights.

"We believe that every woman has the right to her own body and the right to choose," Labaš said. "We, of course, must also think about the future because some of us may find themselves in that awful situation when they will need empathy and we want everyone to be able to exercise this right."

The Walk for Life was joined by Ladislav Ilčić, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, who said that Croatia needs young people and children for economic growth.

"If we want higher pensions, we need young people who will pay into pension funds. If we want personal happiness, children can help a lot in that regard. I think all politicians should support this," Ilčić said.

MP Natalija Martinčević supported the Saturday for Freedom rally, criticising doctors who invoked conscientious objection in the case of Mirela Čavajda, a pregnant woman who has applied for a termination of the pregnancy because of the poor condition of her baby.

"I respect their right to conscientious objection, but in their own time in their own private clinics. When they are paid with government money, they should respect the laws of Croatia," Martinčević said.

Between 500 and 1,000 people are estimated to have participated in the Walk for Life, while the Saturday for Freedom attracted far fewer demonstrators.

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ZAGREB, 27 March 2022 - This year's Walk for Life will be held in ten cities across Croatia on Sundays in May and June, a news conference heard in Osijek on Sunday.

Representatives of the civic group "Walk for Life, Family and Croatia" told reporters that marches would be held in Vinkovci, Varaždin and Slavonski Brod on 7 May, in Zagreb on 14 May, in Split and Imotski on 21 May, in Zadar and Ploče on 28 May, and in Osijek and Sisak on 11 June.

Lidija Blagojević of the civic group said that the Walk for Life was a peaceful walk for every human life from conception to natural death, for the protection of unborn children and their mothers, and for the protection of every family.

The national coordinator of the Walk for Life, Željka Markić, said this year's campaign was taking place in the context of a horrible war in Ukraine, noting that many volunteers of the Walk for Life initiative were involved in collecting aid and providing accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.

"The killing of people we have been witnessing every day makes us particularly sensitive to the need to build the culture of life and fight for every human life, from its beginning to its end", Markić said.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 29 May 2021 - The Walk for Life association on Saturday organised the sixth annual pro life march in the centre of Zagreb, and according to estimates of the organisers, several thousand people took part in this year's march.

The motto of this year's march is "For the protection of every human life, without any discrimination."

Activist Luka Hudinčec said that the initiative was also for the protection of the elderly against possible euthanasia.

The organisers said they were advocating the protection of every human life, from conception to natural death.

The march was held from the western parts of the downtown to Zrinjevac park. The police stopped the tram traffic in that part of Zagreb during the walk of activists.

At the same time, several counter-marchers rallied outside the Croatian National Theatre (HNK) requesting a new law on abortion 

A walk for life also took place in the southern town of Imotski today. It was the first time for this rally to be held in this town in the Dalmatian hinterland.

ZAGREB, June 27, 2020 - The Walk for Life citizens' initiative on Saturday distanced itself from the statement by the president of the Malaika association, which organised a march in Rijeka today, that raped women who want to abort are murderers.

The views of Barbara Brezac Benigar can in no way be associated with those of the peaceful Walk for Life, which supports the unborn child, their mother, and father, and every human being, the initiative said in a press release.

Neither Malaika nor its president is part of the national initiative Walk for Life, Family, and Croatia which this year is taking place under the motto "For the protection of every human life - without discrimination," the initiative said.

It asked Brezac Benigar to stop the unauthorised use of Walk for Life's protected logo and visual identity so that her association's activities and her statements are not associated with the Walk for Life.

The initiative also expressed its support for rape victims.

During today's march, Brezac Benigar told N1 television, "Raped women who want to abort, in my opinion, are murderers. A rapist is a person who committed a crime, a mother who aborts is a person who put herself in the position of a murderer because she ended a human life. I'm not sure that one crime should end with another crime."

Asked by the reporter if she was aware of what she was saying, Brezac Benigar said she was "very much aware" of it.

ZAGREB, June 27, 2020 - Katarina Peovic, who heads the slate of the political platform We Can! in Constituency No. 8, said in Rijeka on Saturday that the Walk for Life held in that city today was a walk against reproductive rights, women's equality and against solidarity and social justice.

Peovic made the statement at a news conference held before the start of the Walk for Life in Rijeka.

"All walks in Croatia have been cancelled due to the epidemiological situation, yet the Walk for Life is being held in Rijeka. It seems they want to infect Rijeka, but they won't succeed. The red Rijeka has always been a city of solidarity, equality, equity. It has always supported women's rights, accessible and free abortion, equal pay for women and men, higher wages, and policies advocating workers' and women's rights," Peovic said, among other things.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 - Due to the epidemiological situation with the coronavirus, the Walk for Life march won't be held in Zagreb on June 27 as scheduled and is being postponed until the autumn, the organisers announced on Wednesday.

"We wish to inform the public that the Walk for Life, Family, and Croatia, which was to have been held on Saturday, June 27, is being postponed until the autumn," the march's coordinator in Zagreb Andrea Kotnik said.

She added that there was a huge interest to participate in the walk and that more than 500 people had registered for the walk, which is how many people would have been allowed to gather according to recommendations by the National Civil Protection Authority.

"We decided on the postponement due to the spike in the number of people infected. We are all disappointed, our volunteers invested a lot of effort but we concluded that life, safety, and public health are more important and that we need to be responsible and protect every human life and everyone who was going to come to the walk because families with children often attend the walk," said Kotnik.

Ivan Mihanovic recalled that the Walk for Life advocates the protection of every human life from conception without discrimination. He told the authorities that it is necessary to create a friendly and motivating environment in society for new families to be created and to encourage young people to have children regardless of the circumstances.

ZAGREB, June 10, 2020 - One of the coordinators of Zagreb's Walk for Life, Andrea Kotnik announced on Wednesday that this year's march would be held in Zagreb on June 27 as well as in seven other cities, including three new ones, but on different dates.

The 5th Walk for Life in Zagreb will be held on June 27. Marchers will gather outside the Croatian National Theatre and march through the city centre, Kotnik said.

This year's motto is "Protecting life without discrimination". Kotnik said that during the corona crisis special attention was directed at the elderly but they wanted care to be extended to everyone, particularly the elderly.

She said that citizens were jointly responsible for how society, politics and the law treated every life, from conception to death, calling on citizens to join the march.

Asked whether the walk was routinely used as a campaign tool ahead of parliamentary elections, Kotnik said that date is selected at the start of the year and that was the case this year too.

Another coordinator, Luka Hudincec, said that the walk would also be held in Rijeka, Osijek, Split, and Zadar as well as in three new cities, namely Imotski, Sisak and Slavonski Brod. The coordinators in each of these cities will select a date for the walk while taking care of all protective measures in light of the coronavirus epidemic, adding that he hopes next year the walk would be held simultaneously everywhere in May.

"We wish to remind those responsible for the protection of life and that everyone has the right to live without discrimination - old, young, those with higher or lower education, and particularly the unborn," he said.

In Zagreb, Zadar and Split the anti-abortion protests "Walk for life, family and Croatia" were organised by activists, under the slogan "We need to protect the most endangered minority in Croatia - the unborn children".

In Zagreb, the protest started on Zrinjevac Square, where the police estimate around 5000 people gathered to walk through the city center, all the way to Saint Mark's square, where both the government and the parliament buildings are located. Unofficial estimates of the number of people partaking in the protest are much higher than the police estimate.

A stage was set up at Saint Mark's square, and Marko Perković Thompson, a highly controversial Croatian singer, performed some of his greatest hits. During the protest walk itself, the protesters also sang his songs and other songs which could be described as patriotic, as well as a number of spiritual and religious pieces of music. 

At the very beginning of the protest walk, things were interrupted by a group of anti-protesters, who sat on the road in Praška street, where the main protest group was supposed to pass. They demanded the protection of a woman's right to choose and were swiftly removed by the police and charged with disorderly conduct. 

So far, no estimates on the number of people who joined the protests in Zadar and Split have been published, but the numbers are also in the thousands. In Zadar, a small group of pro-choice anti-protesters were also making their statements, and they report that they were insulted by the passing anti-abortion activists and ordinary citizens who expressed their opinions on their protest.

One of the members of the organising board of the anti-abortion protests, Miro Vuković, said that they want to make a statement that life starts at the moment of the conception, that every life is equally worthy and that their aim is to support every mother, father and family in accepting life as a huge gift.

An anti-abortion walk will be held for the first time in Split this month.