Croatian 'Family Ministry' Plan Causes Abortion Worries

The Women's Network of Croatia told BIRN that a rumoured candidate to head the proposed new Ministry of the Family, Immigration and Demography could push "highly conservative" attitudes towards women and try to curb legal rights to abortion.

Tomislav Karamarko, the president of centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, which is currently in talks to form the next government, announced plans to set up the new ministry on Sunday.

One of the HDZ's rumoured candidates for the position of minister is Stjepan Sterc, a demographics expert from the Zagreb Faculty of Science, who once headed the Zagreb branch of the right-wing Croatian Party of Rights.

Sterc told newspaper Jutarnji list last Thursday that "Croatia has too many abortions".

He said however that he did not want to ban abortion, but to "create such a healthcare, psychological and legal framework in which it is easier to decide".

The Women's Network of Croatia on Saturday wrote to Tihomir Oreskovic, the prime minister designate, pleading with him not to name Sterc as family minister or to nominate Ante Corusic as health minister.

Corusic said on December 29 that he wanted to amend the law to bring in the same kind of rules on abortions as in fellow Catholic-majority country Poland, where terminations are only permitted if a woman's health is in jeopardy, if the pregnancy is a the result of criminal act or if the foetus is seriously deformed.

Mirjana Kucer, a coordinator at the Women's Network of Croatia, told BIRN that although she was not completely sure that the new family ministry would curb abortion, Sterc and Corusic's statements suggested that new limits were being considered.

"They are talking about giving psychological and legal relief for...