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Yesterday's courageous speech by a member of parliament during a debate on the state of the healthcare system in Croatia brought to the forefront a topic that had remained unaddressed due to the imposed "ideal of the sanctity and purity of pregnancy and childbirth". Women, under pressure from socially conditioned and imposed images of pregnancy and childbirth as a happy and carefree event that is elevated above the level of reality of everyday experiences, do not have the space to speak out about the aggravating circumstances and problems related to these processes and their medical treatment. Women's reproductive health and related healthcare are discussed in public exclusively in the context of fertility, the average age of women giving birth and the number of children, i.e., women's reproductive health is not a topic in itself, nor is there a political will to improve the healthcare system within the medical fields of gynecology and obstetrics.
(Commendable) projects aimed at newborns and children were developed, but projects aimed at improving the quality of public healthcare aimed at women and mothers were absent. Not a single hospital in Croatia was "women/mothers friendly", but on the contrary, a significant number of women have encountered medical practices that violate patients' rights and are denied access to the best medical care.
Experiences of inhumane and unprofessional treatment during "curettage" in situations of spontaneous abortion or termination of pregnancy on request are linked to other discriminatory and misogynistic practices widespread within the public health system of the Republic of Croatia.
Husband's stitch (Croatian: husband's stitch, husband's knot) is one example of misogynistic practices that refers to cases when the responsible physician, without the consent and knowledge of the woman in labor, at the request or with the permission of the patient's husband, "stitches" more than the tissue torn during childbirth without medical necessity and health benefits for the woman, and for the pleasure of the man in subsequent sexual relations.
Without further ado, we strongly condemn the discriminatory and misogynistic medical practices widespread within the healthcare system of the Republic of Croatia, which violate the rights of women as citizens and patients, and which are a reflection of a patriarchal society and its relationship to women's bodies as incubators and objects.
