MP advocates 100-metre exclusion zones around hospital entrances, arguing that prayer gatherings put pressure on women when they are at their most vulnerable.
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Anka Mrak Taritas. Photo: Anka Mrak Taritas/Facebook.
Parliamentarian Anka Mrak Taritas, from the Civic Liberal Alliance, GLAS, said on Wednesday that she is seeking amendments to the Public Assembly Act to prohibit gatherings of people praying outside hospitals, which have become a common occurrence in Croatia.
She said the proposed ban would apply to all gatherings, regardless of size, including a single person, within 100 metres of a hospital entrance.
Taritas explained that the ban would apply to all forms of expression, “when such acts attempt to influence a female patient’s freedom of choice, exert pressure on individuals seeking healthcare services or on healthcare professionals, infringe upon patients’ privacy, or hinder free and unimpeded access to healthcare”.
The ban would protect women from pressure, harassment and violations of their dignity and privacy at a particularly vulnerable moment, specifically when they arrive at hospitals for pregnancy termination, she said.
Taritas noted that several European countries, including Ireland, have already introduced such bans. Spain, she added, had gone further by introducing a specific criminal offence of the harassment of women and medical staff outside clinics where pregnancy terminations are performed.
“The situation in Croatia is somewhat different because, unfortunately, a culture of violence against women is fostered here. Therefore, we do not expect this proposal to be met with any receptiveness,” she said.
She said the “public call by those praying for the subjugation of women, taking place on the first Saturday of every month”, constitutes institutional violence by a state that fails to protect women from violence.
She was referencing the gatherings held on the first Saturday of every month, when ultra-conservative Catholics meet in city squares to pray for “the restoration of male authority within the family”.
Taritas argued that these meetings expose vulnerable women to further trauma.
“All of this is part of that culture of violence and is an everyday reality for women in Croatia – a reality that persists under the auspices of the government,” Taritas said.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic sees women as “insignificant”, she claimed. “They only become ‘important’ in the lead-up to elections, even though they should be considered important all the time,” she added.