No headway has been made in the proceedings initiated a year ago, after Milica Filipović from Šabac publicly shared her traumatic experience of the inhuman treatment she had been subjected to when she had an induced abortion. The public prosecutors have not decided on the criminal complaint, the injured party has not been interviewed and witnesses have not been proposed. The review of the operations of the Narodni Front Ob-Gyn Clinic launched by the Protector of Citizens has not been completed yet, while the inspection and Health Ministry’s ad hoc check found no shortcomings in the work of the health workers who had treated Milica. The conclusions in these proceedings were issued only based on written documents and written statements the Clinic staff had submitted to its management.
BCHR’s survey of the experiences of women who had induced abortion in Serbian institutions showed that 77% of them witnessed the induced abortions of other patients, while 86.8% believed that the procedure was not performed in accordance with the highest standards, i.e. that the patients’ privacy was not respected. Almost half of the respondents (48.5%) said that health workers were not present during the induced abortion, while 39.4% said that that the health workers had insulted them. Nearly half of the respondents with personal experience of induced abortion said that they had not been informed in advance of the procedure and its course, consequences or risks, and that they had not been asked to sign a consent form. Most of the respondents – 45 percent – had an induced abortion in the Narodni front Ob-Gyn Clinic in Belgrade.
BCHR’s survey also included individual in-depth interviews, which showed that most of the women had been alone during the induced abortion (“I had to fend for myself”), i.e. that the health workers did not assist them in the process. Many of them had their abortion in the hospital room in the presence of other patients, in the hospital toilets or halls, and a substantial share of them were disparaged by the health workers (who put them down, insulted them and shouted at them). Although the respondents described the experience as extremely painful, they said that the way they were treated hurt more than the physical pain they felt. They said that the negligence, neglect, disparagement and lack of empathy on the part of the health workers led to their extreme distress, which further undermined their psycho-physical health at the time.
The survey respondents knew three other women who had the experience of induced abortion on average. This finding indicates that a large share of women in Serbia have subjected themselves to the procedure in Serbia but are still neither willing nor sufficiently empowered to discuss this sensitive subject.
BCHR’s survey of women who had themselves undergone the induced abortion procedure or witnessed it in Serbian health institutions was conducted in November and December 2022 by Ninamedia.
Watch the video testimonial of women who went through an induced abortion:
