Open Letter from the Executive Committee of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association (CCMA) on the Appeal to Conscience
On Monday, October 27, the Executive Committee of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association (CCMA) sent an “open letter regarding the alleged suspension of abortions at the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Petrova) of the Zagreb University Hospital.” The letter, which emphasizes that the right to appeal to conscience is a fundamental human right inherent in the concept of human dignity, is reproduced in full.
OPEN LETTER
From the Executive Committee of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association
on the alleged suspension of abortion services
at the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Petrova) of the Zagreb University Hospital
Since October 21, 2025, news has emerged that the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Petrova) of the Zagreb University Hospital has suspended abortions on request. The reason given is a plea of conscience invoked by the majority of nurses and technicians employed at the Clinic.
The news was reported by numerous portals (Indeks, Story, Večernji list, Narod.hr, and others), as well as in the latest issue of Glas Koncila (The Voice of the Council – Catholic Weekly). Some women’s organizations have publicly questioned the availability of abortions on demand, such as the “Courageous Sisters” network and its president Romana Jakaša in an article. These reports reveal that the main problem is the refusal to administer post-coital contraceptive pills, and that the main cause is the conscientious objection of nurses and technicians involved in the implementation of this intervention.
We would like to take this opportunity to clearly express our support for nurses and technicians, doctors and pharmacists, as well as all other healthcare workers who refuse to participate in acts that go against their conscience.
- We recall that the right to conscientious objection is a fundamental human right inherent in the concept of human dignity and is explicitly formulated in numerous documents:
a) the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia
– Art. 40 and Art. 47;
b) Resolution 1763 (2010) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Right to conscientious objection in the exercise of the legal medical profession:
“No person, hospital, or institution shall be coerced, held liable, or discriminated against in any way for refusing to perform, facilitate, assist, or direct an abortion, to perform any type of spontaneous abortion, or to perform euthanasia or any act likely to cause the death of a human fetus or embryo, for any reason whatsoever.”
c) many other national documents (Medicine Law, Code of Ethics and Medical Deontology, Pharmacy Law, Code of Ethics and Pharmaceutical Deontology, Code of Ethics for Midwives, Nursing Law, Law on Medically Assisted Reproduction, and others) and
d) international documents (Hippocratic Oath (5th/4th century BC), Geneva Declaration (1948), United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (2010)). - As Catholic doctors and healthcare professionals, we firmly affirm that abortion, whether instrumental or medical, is the murder of a living person and cannot be justified by any material, social, eugenic, philosophical, or ideological reason. It is equally unacceptable to persuade, facilitate, and seduce people to undergo procedures that constitute the murder of a living person.
When invoking the appeal to conscience, there’s no need to explain this right: those who appeal to their conscience are not required to provide any explanation. It’s sufficient to state it. Even completely illiterate people have the right to appeal to conscience.
The right to appeal to conscience, enshrined in the Constitution and the law, is the recognition of the existence of an intimate “meeting place” between God and every human being, in which social customs, social opportunism, written and unwritten rules, ideologies, politics and laws, and even theology, cannot interfere. This is the main reason why the anti-theistic agenda of the liberal left is trying with all its might to abolish the appeal to conscience. Every opportunity is exploited to denounce those who express their conscientious objection, to spread false news about them, and to undermine the institution of the appeal to conscience. There’s talk of the confusion surrounding the concept of the appeal of conscience, the unregulated institution of the appeal of conscience, or the unclear rules regarding who, under what conditions, and when can appeal to their conscience.
It’s unacceptable that Ombudsman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, as a lawyer who boasts of having graduated with honors, doesn’t address the root causes of the situation for nurses and technicians who have the constitutional right to conscientious objection. She’s not here to protect anyone’s beliefs, but to warn against the violation of constitutional rights. If her silence is solely out of concern for the rights of women seeking abortion (a legal right), she should know that the right to conscientious objection is a constitutional, not a legal, category.
The goal of this program is to destroy the concept of conscience as the place where man meets God. And that’s why defending the right to conscientious objection is a course we’ll never turn back from!
Prof. Rok Čivljak
President of the Croatian Catholic Medical Association
