Lobbying For Babies

Even state television broadcast only "chosen" parts from Serbian Patriarch Pavle's special Christmas message. Apart from the Patriarch, the message was signed by 35 bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church at home and abroad.

Among the many misfortunes which have afflicted the Serbian people, the bishops mention another, the "epidemic which has spread throughout the modern world, and unfortunately, the Serbian nation, and threatens to exterminate the descendants of St. Sava. This is the 'white plague' - infanticide and a low reproduction rate. So that today, unfortunately, in some parts of our country, there are more graves than there are cradles. Mothers conceive because this is linked to pleasure and satisfaction, but they don't wish to bear and raise children because this is arduous and allegedly disturbs their comfort."

The diagnosis has been established and is now followed with a threat. "Many mothers who didn't wish to have more than one child, today tear their hair and weep bitter tears over their only sons lost in war, often cursing God and men, but forgetting to blame themselves for not having had more children who would remain to comfort them... When they stand before the Most Just Judge, those mothers who did not allow their children to be born, will meet their children who will ask them accusingly: Why did you kill us, why didn't you bear us?!"

Between these two sentences we have cited, stood the following passage: "It has been calculated that the Serbs, unless the birthrate does not take a turn for the better, will become a national minority in twenty years' time in their own country. Then, of course, they will not be able to decide independently about themselves and their fate, because the proverb: "He who owns the flock will own the mountain," will be in force.

The first reaction to the Serbian Orthodox Church's Christmas message of peace and love and its mixture of illiteracy and global ambitions (akin to "analyses" and "estimates of the situation" by army headquarters) which could have touched even a literate believer, came from women, or more precisely, the Belgrade female lobby which concluded that "God is far, there is no peace on earth, while the malice and spite of priests has targeted women."

In their answer the members of the Belgrade female lobby claim that women abort, among other things, because they don't have adequate sexual knowledge, contraceptives are not available to them, their partners don't take care of them, they live in poverty and don't wish to increase the number of those who are wretched, because society does not guarantee them peace, and does not allow them to live off their work and because they are social, educated and cultured beings who can't be reduced to mere reproduction. Women abort because they have been raped in marriage and outside marriage, because they have been forced into sexual relations with their bosses, friends of the family, clients, etc. Today women have an additional reason for aborting. Women don't wish to give birth to children whom you and like-minded persons will send to fight Crusades."

The message ends: "If you really care about women's lives, why didn't you excommunicate Serbian warriors who raped in Bosnia. You, Monsignor Franjo Kuharic and Reis-ul-ulema Jakub Selimovski are to blame because so many women were tools in the hands of enraged warriors, because they found pleasure in the women's suffering and through their bodies ethnically cleansed entire regions. Repent. Leave the women to make their own decisions. They know how."

Whereas Radio-television Serbia broadcast a shortened version of the Serbian Orthodox Church's Christmas message, only NTV Studio B and Radio B-92 carried the women's protest. The calm lasted three days. Then the Center for the development of Christian-Orthodox education with the Theological Institute of the Serbian Orthodox Church pointed out that "Serbian Patriarch Pavle had addressed himself to believers and spoken of the morals and rules pertaining to the Orthodox belief."

The Serbian Orthodox Church's message on abortions was narrowed down last week to all people of goodwill and Orthodox female believers. In a talk with VREME (carried out before the publication of the Church's answer to the women's reaction), feminist Nadezda Cetkovic, one of the signatories of the protest against militarism and sexism in the Christmas message, asked why the Patriarch, or rather the Serbian Orthodox Church was putting "its" female believers in an unequal position with regard to "other" female believers and non-believers.

"The priests and doctors always support a restrictive approach to abortion," said Cetkovic. "In this way they increase their power. The doctors get more money from criminal abortions and the priests more sinners". It is not difficult to prove the state (budget) interest. Serbia's first multiparty Assembly (which had the least number of women of all European countries, including the Turkish parliament), by introducing the now notorious "participation" in health protection costs, took away all subsidies for abortions, cosmetic surgery and the treatment of alcoholics, so that the full costs are covered by patients. In other words, all expenses which pertain to women (including those when they have the misfortune to be married to alcoholics). "Society treats women as a bottomless pit. Women take care of children, the old, the handicapped, the house, the grey economy. An intelligent demographic policy could help channel this female energy, since it is not inexhaustible".

Even statisticians are acquainted with the banal fact that abortions are not linked in any way to the demographic drop. The Federal Statistical Administration registered a downward population trend in central Serbia and Vojvodina in the seventies, and this can be linked factually to the rapid industrialization which took place over two decades in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and changed the population structure. With the migration of the rural population to the cities, a ratio of 80:20 in favor of the "city dwellers" took place.

"The most important thing is the quality of the populace", said the Statistical Administration assistant director. "Fifty thousand men, aged 20-35 are worth as much as one million of the younger and older population segments. The aging of the population, the increased number of those supported and the drop in the number of the active population, are problems faced by all developed countries. In classical societies the rural population is the strong base for basic biological reproduction. Without this source, all industrial societies regulate the birthrate problem through social measures".

Concerning women's right to abortion worldwide, it is possible to talk of three groups of countries. Countries with liberal legislature, where an abortion is carried out at the request of the pregnant woman. Today this covers 80% of the world population; basically, there is only one reason against an abortion - if it endangers the woman's life. Regulations differ on when a pregnancy can be terminated, i.e. on the final deadline. The pertinent draft law in Serbia (which Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic turned back for additional changes) foresaw that the tenth week of pregnancy was the final deadline, exceptionally twenty weeks if the pregnancy endangered the woman's life. It however, allowed for no exceptions - pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, sexual blackmail or material reasons. "Cuba and Turkey are the only two countries in the world with such laws today," said Cetkovic.

The second group of countries includes those with liberal legislature which foresees rape, incest and saving the woman's life as sufficient reason for an abortion. About 18% of the world's female population lives in countries which allow an abortion only if the woman's life is endangered. In Europe this is the case only in Ireland; the other countries are the most undeveloped ones or "religious-fundamentalist" countries. "In most of them the use of contraceptives was banned until the appearance of AIDS. Contraceptives were allowed only when the men's asses became endangered".

The final result of the situation, in combination with male arrogance in the Balkans, is that the blame and damnation are laid at the feet of the innocent, i.e. women.

Since December 21, 1994, the "Dragisa Misovic" Maternity Hospital in Belgrade has not taken in new patients because of the appearance of salmonellosis. Belgrade Health Protection Institute epidemiologists have isolated salmonella bacteria in 21 babies and one mother. Two babies were transferred to the Mother and Child Institute, one died on December 30, while the other is recovering. The remaining babies are being checked in outpatient clinics.

All rooms were disinfected late last week, so that the Maternity Hospital will probably open this week. The Health Insurance Fund has earmarked money for repairing the hot water boiler in the Maternity Hospital, which had been out of order for some time. The final decision on the exact date when the Maternity Hospital will start taking in new patients will be given by Belgrade Health Protection Institute epidemiologists and the Serbian Sanitary Inspectorate.

Must a disaster take place before money is found to improve conditions in maternity wards? According to data issued by the Epidemiological department of the Belgrade Health Protection Institute, there were 24,776 cases of persons with infective illness, of which 8,194 had infective intestinal illnesses. This information points to the fact that intestinal illnesses have increased by 19.5% as compared to the number in 1993. There were 33 epidemics in 1994, compared to 25 in 1993.

Table

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Population

1993 1994

Number of inhabitants 10481954 10536224

Live births 140985 139027

Deaths 107396 105763

Infant mortality 3081 2594

Natural birthrate 33589 33264

Birthrate per 1,000 inhabitants

Yugoslavia 3.20 3.16

Montenegro 7.10 6.76

Serbia (total) 2.96 2.93

Central Serbia -0.21 -0.16

Kosovo and Metohija 17.76 17.38

Vojvodina -2.98 -3.11

Marriages 62045 59577

Divorces 7394 6493

Source: Federal Statistical Administration, 1995

Processed data for the whole of 1994 confirm already noticed trends: a drop in the population figure in Vojvodina and Central Serbia, a growth in Kosovo and Metohija. The decreased rate of the negative growth in Serbia (the media have already used headlines of the type: "White Plague Halted!") is assessed by Federal Statistical Administration experts as the population's reaction to the curtailing of hyperinflation in 1993, and "the effect of stabilization in 1994". This decrease shows that there is no change in the downward trend of the population total in Serbia and Vojvodina.