In Croatia, the majority of gynecologists today refuse to perform abortions, citing their conscience clause. In the country, under the influence of the powerful and reactionary Catholic Church, Jasenka Grujić is one of the few to resist. Portrait of this ” fierce woman “.
Do the huge red glasses that cross Jasenka Grujić’s face reveal her political opinions at first glance? Aged 71 – but she is easily given ten years younger – the dashing gynecologist in any case hardly hides her aversion to the right-wing drift of Croatia which began upon its independence in 1991. “ In the Yugoslav era, we were freer “, she decides in her deep voice, when we talk about the growing influence of the Church. In this crescent-shaped Balkan country, 86% of the population claims to be Catholic.
” Gynecology has become clericalized adds Jasenka Grujić. Today, she is one of the few to publicly dare to defy the pro-life discourse propagated by the influential clergy and the ultra-conservative associations linked to it. ” You may believe that the Virgin Mary was a virgin, but if you are a gynecologist, you are the only person who can help a woman if she wants an abortion “, she quips. “ If you refuse, you go against the values of the profession “.
Healing is a family affair among the Grujićs: Jasenka’s parents were themselves doctors in Zagreb and it was they, she says, who transmitted her “vocation”. That of a medicine accessible to all, where the interests of patients must always come first. Since 1994, she has been working in the private sector, a choice by default. At the time, clerical-nationalist propaganda was already raging in Croatia at war and the gynecologist could no longer bear the atmosphere and the pressures at the public hospital where she then worked.
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In the 1970s, when she was still a young intern, Jasenka Grujić witnessed the consequences of clandestine abortions. ” It’s something I will never forget. This accelerated my awareness and my revolt. She then practiced at the hospital on Vinogradska Street, in the center of Zagreb, where she remembers having met only one colleague who refused to perform an abortion for religious reasons.
Half a century later, the situation has reversed. ” Many of my colleagues consider abortion murder “, annoys Jasenka Grujić. The latest study commissioned in 2019 by the Gender Equality Defender confirms this: 59% of Croatian gynecologists indicate that they invoke their “conscience clause” not to operate on women wishing to have an abortion. And the trend is on the rise: in 2014, they were 4% less. In neighboring Slovenia, a former Yugoslav land, also of Catholic tradition, they are barely 3%.
Particularly active “pro-life” activists
In independent Croatia, abortion quickly became one of the battle horses of conservative Catholic militants, revenge after half a century of socialist power. Thirty years later, “pro-life” activists are now particularly powerful in the country: their websites are the best referenced and their “information” campaigns are even displayed on the walls of clinics and hospitals. ” These groups are very well organized and their rhetoric very well established “, concedes Jasenka Grujić. ” They talk about “lives” and of “hearts” to influence public opinion, but they never take women’s best interests into account. »
An aberration for the one who has always claimed her feminism. While recounting having been married to several men “, the septuagenarian insists on her adult life” always lived as a free and independent woman by refusing patriarchal guardianship, which is particularly burdensome in Croatia. Now a grandmother, she refuses to give up in the face of the resurgence of moral order. Her fight for more than half a century for the emancipation of women serves as an inspiration for young Croatian women activists.
Avoid the nearest hospital
In her office, Jasenka Grujić receives patients from all walks of life. ” Some had nothing to pay for their consultation. So they brought me something else, a chicken or eggs sometimes. “Exercising in the private sector, the gynecologist does not have the right to practice abortion. So she advises those who come to see her for an abortion to go not to Croatia, but to the Slovenian clinic in Brežice, just across the border. ” By going there, they are sure that they will not be judged and that they will not be refused abortion, so it is more reassuring. »
Indeed, the stigmatization of abortion is such in Croatia that women prefer not to go to the nearest hospital, but to travel tens of kilometers and go to a medical establishment where no one knows them. And more and more of them are going to have abortions in neighboring countries to avoid stigma. No wonder then that Croatia has the lowest abortion rate in the European Union, just after Poland.
Last May, Croatia was rocked by a major scandal: a future mother, Mirela Čavajda, was refused by several hospitals in Zagreb the right to terminate pregnancy when her fetus presented with a brain tumour, jeopardizing her survival at birth. This story makes Jasenka Grujić jump. ” Everything these doctors have done is debatable: there is precise legislation which governs the right to abortion in Croatia and religion must not interfere. »
At the same time, the gynecologist with huge red glasses was honored by the feminist festival Vox Feminae, which awarded her the title of “fierce woman”. ” Jasenka Grujić is one of Croatia’s strongest voices, boldly and consistently promoting sex education and women’s right to choose. She is one of the strongest advocates for free contraceptives and more accessible medical abortion. “, detail the organizers to justify their choice.
Beyond the small progressive militant circles, Jasenka Grujić must nevertheless face innumerable criticisms. ” I am free, but isolated “, she explained a few months ago to the magazine Novosti came to question him. ” Those who understand my way of thinking and who don’t like it avoid me, but so far I haven’t experienced any unpleasant situations or received any threats. Then to conclude, with humour: I hope I’m not going to be burned at the stake after this interview. »