Doctor: Will Unmarried Women Be Forced to Abort?

In Croatia unmarried woman are allowed to have children naturally. But if you cannot naturally, I will not allow you? asks dr. Krizmanic.

Women without partners are not allowed to have artificial fertilization, because the child would be immediately denied one parent, said professor Andrija Hebrang, the president of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) club of parliamentarians in parliament, in the interview of the week on radio 101. He announced that they were really working on a law for artificial fertilization, but that it will be conservative, even though it is new. According to Hebrang’s opinion, problems could occur when somebody needs to explain who the child’s father is, so this is why it should only be allowed to married women.

“It is the right of all marriages to have children, but the question is raised if they need to tell the child who their father really is. The church is against this kind of fertilization, but the right to be parents is more important” considers Andrija Hebrang. He added that in his opinion, a child should have both parents.

This stance disgusted many, including doctor Mirjana Krizmanic who says that Hebrang’s statements are an unallowable discrimination of women.

“As far as I know, in Croatia unmarried women are allowed to have children naturally. In other words, they are allowed to have children without a husband. Why can they not do so with artificial fertilization? Because the child will not have both parents? That is only discrimination, if you cannot do so naturally, I prohibit you from doing so. Should unmarried women be forced to have an abortion by the state? asked Krizmanic.

Maja Mamula agreed with that, who is a well known female rights activist, who says that she was not too surprised by listening to Hebrang.

“The whole story as presented by Hebrang presents the concept of a family is under every level. Placing the idea that a family is the union of a man and a woman, his concept of a family, is like a detergent commercial. He denies the possibility of other types of families, for example single mothers or those where grandparents raise the children. His statement humiliates the families that are different from the ideal, and implies a difference between the children. Why would the children that are born in traditional families with a mother and father necessarily have a greater chance for a happy life than other children? asked Mamula.

`State allows single mothers because it allows divorce´

The parliamentarian Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic asked herself the same thing, who previously as the minister of justice worked on Croatia getting a modern law on medically assisted fertilization, however the proposed law was obstructed by the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), who is now announcing a conservative version of the same law.

“Women must not be discriminated according to if they life in a marriage or not. This comes from the constitution and law on suppressing discrimination, and from the fact that the state allows divorces, which means that it allows single mothers. This is pointless, because since 1978 an extra-marital relationship was equalised with marriage. Hebrang is sending the message that a woman that decided to give birth without a partner is suspicious to this administration” concluded Anticevic Marinovic.

Remember, besides HDZ’s new proposal prohibiting unmarried women from being artificially fertilized, even from being a surrogate mother. The law would also determine the maximum age for medically assisted fertilization, as well as the number of procedures that would be covered by healthcare. Besides that, they would prohibit the foundation of a joint register of sperm and ova donors, or married couples that gained their children via artificial fertilization, and who were treated for infertility.