Critical reviews of the "40 Days for Life" initiative and its real impact on women are absent from the media coverage.

photo: Lenka Pavlović

Last week, the Parish of St. Matthew in Mostar announced that “Mostar, and thus Bosnia and Herzegovina, is included in the ‘40 Days for Life’ international initiative.” The activities of this campaign, as stated, will be carried out through a vigil in front of the University Clinical Hospital in Mostar.

The vigil will be held daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., from 5 March to 13 April 2025.

“Everyone who can join this initiative to protect unborn life is welcome. You can also participate by fasting and praying for that purpose,” the Parish's announcement reads.

The announcement also stated that “40 Days for Life” is “an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign that aims to stop abortion at the local level through prayer and fasting, local community awareness and peaceful vigils.”

The vigil in front of the University Clinical Hospital in Mostar started yesterday, and information about this initiative was reported by the Fena news agency. The media in Mostar, including Večernji, Mostarska Panorama, and Bljesak, reported on it positively, while media from other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina ignored the news. Information about what this initiative actually means, how it affects women and their right to abortion, as well as critical reviews and reactions to the movement, were absent in the media. 

The media in Mostar reported that “the first day of the campaign passed in an atmosphere of joy and enthusiasm, and the petitioners expressed their satisfaction and positive impressions.” They also quoted one of the campaign participants who said: “Statistics show that, in cities where similar initiatives were started, many abortion clinics were closed, the birth rate increased, and our people experienced a spiritual renewal.”

They also reported that 60 people had signed up, which, according to the initiative’s spokesperson Danijela Mustapić, is a miracle, since they had set a “megalomaniac” 12 hours for the daily vigil. They also highlighted the initiative’s “impressive results” worldwide, citing how many doctors had resigned and how many abortion clinics had closed. They did not contact any of the women’s organisations in BiH for their opinion, nor did they convey any of the numerous criticisms from organisations and media outlets around the world. They forgot to mention that the right to abortion is guaranteed by law in BiH and that every woman has the right to decide on the termination of pregnancy according to her own choice.

Some media outlets, including BHRT, had previously announced the initiative without criticism by quoting Fena’s release. In the report, the organisers welcomed anyone who wanted to join the “initiative to protect unborn life.”

Campaign background

Croatia is the closest country to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and an anti-abortion campaign has been underway there for several years. Through media reports, it is possible to reconstruct the beginning and expansion of this movement.

Reports about this initiative in the media in Croatia go back ten years. In 2016, activists of the 40 Days for Life initiative in Vukovar announced on their Facebook profile that they knew a certain patient was coming to the Vukovar General Hospital for an abortion and invited people to join them in prayer in front of the clinic. 

When asked by Nova TV whether such announcements violated women's rights in 2016, the coordinator of the 40 Days for Life initiative, Lidija Dugan, answered: “Absolutely not. The 40 Days for Life initiative is here to pray, people stand in front of the hospital if perhaps a pregnant woman comes to have an abortion, so we can help her if she turns to us. We don’t approach anyone first; we stand and pray for those families and all those wounded by abortion.”

In February 2021, Index.hr described the participants of 40 Days for Life as “Catholic fanatics who mistreat women in front of hospitals” in one of its articles and announced that on that day, Lent began in 33 Croatian cities, at 35 vigils, where they will pray and hold vigils to stop abortions.

In 2022, the same media outlet also published an extensive article about the praying people on the main square in Zagreb, with the headline “Who Stands Behind the Kneelers on Ban Jelačić Square?”. The article wrote that this is a gathering of extreme Catholics who are bringing a previously unknown practice to Croatia that has no basis in the local religious tradition.

They also wrote that the vigil attendees are gathering at the invitation of the Muževni Budite (Be Masculine) project, “of the ultra-Catholic association Hrvatska za Život (Croatia for Life), which is connected to praying people in front of hospitals, and trying to dissuade women from abortion using psychological pressure through the 40 Days for Life initiative.”

As stated on the official website of the 40 Days for Life initiative in Croatia, it began in 2007 in the American state of Texas.

“It is an idea of ​​American evangelical Protestants that was then implemented in the Croatian Catholic environment,” wrote Index.hr in an article published three years ago.

The long-time leader of this initiative was David Bereit, who visited Croatia in 2015 and held a lecture stating, among other things, that “Croatia is the country where 40 Days for Life is growing the fastest.”

This statement by Bereit is evidenced by the map showing the activity of this initiative around the world, including Croatia, and now Mostar. The movement’s popularity in Croatia is also indicated by the number of Facebook pages of this initiative.

Reactions in Croatia

While waiting for a BiH to react to the initiative that started in Mostar, let’s look back at a few reactions in Croatia.

Neva Tölle, an advisor at the Autonomous Women's House Zagreb, said last year that “the kneelers in squares are associated with the harassment of women in front of hospitals when they exercise their legal right to abortion, with the abuse of conscientious objection in an institutional sense, and with the disregard for the basic principles of equality according to which women do not need so-called spiritual authorities because they have their own integrity, autonomy, and decide for themselves about all aspects of their lives, especially about their own bodies.” 

In 2023, among other things, the SDP Croatia Club stated that gatherings near health institutions may take place, but only at a distance of at least 200 meters from those institutions in order to prevent the mistreatment of women.

One person who has independently responded to the initiative, and continues to do so today, is Arijana Lekić Fridrih – an artist, director and activist. Every first Saturday of the month, she stands silently in squares across Croatia, confronting the praying people and highlighting violence against women in society.

In an interview for Interview.ba in 2024, Lekić Fridrih said that the silent masses she performs are participatory performances on various topics about the suppression of women's rights and that she tries to deconstruct the narrative heard from the vigil attendees that certainly affects the position of women in society.

She also mentioned Poland, saying that vigils started appearing in that country five years ago and that then it was just a small group of men.

“Then it formalised into a movement in many cities in Poland which lobbies for the policy that came to power there, which is an ultra-conservative policy that is especially dangerous for women. It led to women dying because abortion was forbidden,” she told Interview.ba. 

As reported by Jutarnji.hr, she also set up an art installation last week as part of a silent mass, protesting against the “kneelers” who pray for the “chastity” of women in society on the first Saturday of the month at the Peristil Square in Split. 

In early March this year in Zagreb, the men kneeling and praying the rosary on the main square also prayed for “modesty in clothing, the prohibition of abortion and the spiritual authority of men in the family.”

The right to abortion in BiH

While we await the first reactions in BiH, if there are any, we reinforce the fact that BiH has ratified the most important international and regional human rights agreements, which cover rights related to sexual and reproductive health.

As stated in the report of the Human Rights Ombudsman Institution of BiH, according to international human rights bodies and the United Nations, the laws which criminalise abortion are discriminatory and prevent women from enjoying good health and the states should decriminalise abortion under all circumstances.

According to the FBiH Law on Conditions and Procedures for Termination of Pregnancy and the RS Law on Conditions and Procedures for Termination of Pregnancy, every woman has the right to make her own choice regarding abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy.

Translation: Tijana Dmitrović